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This latest work centers on characters seeking fresh starts, trying to break free from drugs or abusive marriages, only to find hope curdling into violence. The author frequently uses the phrase "new beginning", rendering it intentionally weary through constant reiteration. Examples include "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They opted for a clean break" recur in the narrative. And yet, Kraus herself appears to be undertaking her personal new beginning, because this presents as a different type of work – fact-based, truly literary. But then it turns out to be filled with the familiar conflicts and styles as earlier books.

From Accidental Writer to Iconic Work

Chris Kraus started out as an creative who transitioned to writing somewhat by chance with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, which was composed of letters to an unreceptive lover, transforming personal female narrative from humiliation into rebellion. She kept producing books, but the three subsequent fascinating and rebarbative novels missed the impact and rawness that the correspondence format infused into the voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her role as a renegade artist who had evolved into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was considerable focus on real estate deals. It is logical that she now wants to explore new kinds of material, turning outward to external narratives, at a time when she asserts that Trumpian politics renders personal narrative unnecessary.

Three Generations, One Unescapable Past

The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, covering three generations – each trapped by their histories. There is the tale of a couple named Emma and Jasper, based on Kraus's parents, transitioning from the urban environment to the Connecticut countryside. There is the story of Kraus herself, in the guise of protagonist Catt Greene, grappling with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her addict husband Paul. Finally the narrative of a homicide of one lost young man by another in a community largely deserted by forward-thinking policies only 80 miles from the protagonist's home in the Minnesota countryside.

For this reader attracted to honed writing of the sort Kraus tends to eschew, I was enchanted by the novelistic voice of the first section.

As someone who reads who favors precise prose of the kind that Kraus herself usually avoids, I was seduced by the literary tone of the first section. It exhibits a new quality of attentiveness that makes room for minutiae, like the bucket that the young Catt dislodges from ice at the opening of the book, assisted by her adored dad. "Look, an ice toy!" she declares; "a nice toy", he responds, "the elliptical meanings of words tumbling in their mouths like hard candy". She tells Emma's story with interest and closeness. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not hers, exactly."

Disappointment and Disjunction

I was bound to become frustrated when I hoped this different style could persist to the end. Kraus says here that she dislikes the satisfaction those who appreciate polished prose have derived from I Love Dick; she's devoted to fragmentation, to the untidy aesthetics she has in common with her inspiration author Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her past books returns in the second segment. Catt Greene is trying to renovate three dozen dilapidated units in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while traveling between the Midwest and the West Coast, unable to aid Paul control his drinking. She feels helpless as Paul transitions between underfunded jobs as an substance abuse counselor in a environment propelled by the rage and anxiety that underpins an electoral success. A significant portion discusses about Catt's social media ostracism on Twitter, her professional designation altered from "author" to "real estate holder" on Wikipedia. The author still appears to invest excessive emotion about this. At one point she states that she's looking into the killing so that before leaving Minnesota, "she may grasp something about an the nation that her online critics would be unable to grasp, would not even perceive".

The Killing Story

Then we reach to the murder itself – and the titular day spent by the murdered individual with the murderer and his companions. The author possesses great source material, and knows hour by hour what transpired when Brandon came to see Brittney after connecting via an application where she offered adult photos. He was hoping for sex but appears congenially to have passed the day with her companions, loitering having his vehicle repaired and covering the cost of food and substances, before being murdered by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has repeatedly received inpatient care for aggressive outbursts.

Obsession and Unfinished Business

The protagonist becomes fixated by the story, and I was intrigued by the way that her twin drives towards ethical reporting and reckless transgression wrestle in this part. Yet I wished her to explore more thoroughly her own obsessions here. The compelling persona is the character Brittney, who becomes vivid partially because of Catt's identification with her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman derailing in a difficult, overlooked locality. The author informs us that Catt converses with Brittney in jail, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The complete segment feels curiously unresolved, to the degree that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par