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This latest work features protagonists seeking new beginnings, trying to break free from drugs or harmful partnerships, only to find hope curdling into violence. The author frequently uses the phrase "fresh start", making it deliberately jaded through constant reiteration. Phrases such as "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They decided to make a fresh start" are scattered across the text. And yet, the author herself is embarking on her personal new beginning, since this seems a new kind of book – documentarian, truly literary. But then it reveals itself to be laden with the familiar conflicts and approaches as her previous works.

From Chance Novelist to Cult Classic

Chris Kraus began as an visual artist who transitioned to writing somewhat by chance with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, structured as letters to an unreceptive lover, elevating confessional female writing from humiliation into assassination. She kept producing books, but the following three fascinating and rebarbative novels did not possess the impact and rawness that the epistolary style brought to the tone of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her identity as a renegade artist who had evolved into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was much discussion on property transactions. It makes sense that she now wants to explore new kinds of material, looking outwards to the experiences of others, at a period in which she claims that Trumpian politics makes confessional writing redundant.

Multiple Generations, Collective Unavoidable Background

The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, covering several time periods – each trapped by their pasts. The book includes the story of Emma and Jasper, representations of the author's parents, relocating from the urban environment to a pastoral setting. Then there is the story of Kraus herself, in the persona of Catt Greene, reckoning with the belated success of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her addict husband her husband Paul. The third thread involves the account of a killing of one troubled youth by another in a locality mostly forsaken by forward-thinking policies only a brief drive from the protagonist's home in rural Minnesota.

From my perspective as a reader drawn to honed writing of the type the author herself often avoids, I was seduced by the narrative style of the initial segment.

As a reader drawn to precise prose of the style that Kraus herself often disregards, I was seduced by the literary tone of the initial part. It possesses a novel degree of detail that makes room for minutiae, like the container that the young Catt dislodges from ice at the start of the story, aided by her adored dad. "I found an ice toy!" she says; "a nice toy", he responds, "the ambiguous meanings of language circulating in their speech like piece candy". She tells Emma's narrative with interest and closeness. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not entirely her own."

Disappointment and Disjunction

I was bound to become frustrated when I wished this new voice could persist to the end. Kraus notes here that she dislikes the enjoyment audiences such as myself have derived from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disjunction, to the unpolished style she echoes from her idol writer Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her past books reasserts itself in the central part. The protagonist is working on refurbishing three dozen dilapidated units in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while traveling between Minnesota and LA, unable to aid Paul curb his addiction. She is overwhelmed as her spouse transitions between poorly supported positions as an recovery specialist in a environment driven by the rage and anxiety that drives a political win. There are several pages about the protagonist facing cancellation on social media, her occupation changed from "author" to "landlord" on a reference site. She still gives the impression to care a little too much about this. On one occasion she states that she's looking into the killing so that before departing the state, "she could potentially understand something about an America that her online critics would be unable to grasp, would overlook entirely".

The Homicide Account

Then we reach to the murder itself – and the titular day spent by the murdered individual with the killer and his companions. The author possesses excellent raw material, and knows hour by hour what occurred as the victim Brandon came to meet Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she offered adult photos. He anticipated intimacy but appears congenially to have passed the day in the company of her associates, loitering fixing his automobile and funding treats and narcotics, before being shot by Brittney's partner a man named Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has often been institutionalized for fits of anger.

Preoccupation and Open Ends

The protagonist becomes fixated by the story, and I was fascinated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards accurate chronicling and audacious rule-breaking wrestle in this part. However, I would have preferred her to go further into her individual preoccupations here. The standout figure is Brittney herself, who becomes vivid partially because of Catt's identification with her – another bright, bullied girl going off the rails in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus tells us that Catt converses with Brittney in prison, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. The complete segment feels oddly unfinished, to the point that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par