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The new book is populated with characters pursuing new beginnings, struggling to escape drugs or harmful partnerships, only to find hope curdling into aggression. Chris Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "fresh start", transforming it into deliberately jaded through recurring use. Phrases such as "He aimed to start over" and "They chose to begin anew" are scattered across the story. At the same time, she is embarking on her individual reinvention, because this presents as a different type of work – fact-based, authentically narrative. Yet it turns out to be filled with the familiar conflicts and approaches as earlier books.

From Unplanned Author to Cult Classic

Kraus started out as an visual artist who transitioned to writing somewhat by chance with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, which was composed of missives to a distant beloved, transforming intimate women's literature from abjection into assassination. She continued writing, but the next trio of compelling and abrasive novels missed the impact and rawness that the epistolary style infused into the tone of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her identity as a renegade artist who had turned into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was considerable focus on housing investments. It is logical that she presently aims to experiment with different types of content, turning outward to the experiences of others, at a moment when she states that Trumpian politics turns intimate literature redundant.

Three Generations, One Unescapable Past

The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, covering several time periods – each trapped by their histories. There is the narrative about Emma and Jasper, representations of her own mother and father, relocating from the urban environment to the Connecticut countryside. There is the narrative of the author, in the character of protagonist Catt Greene, grappling with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her partner struggling with addiction a man named Paul. The third thread involves the account of a killing of one directionless individual by another in a community largely deserted by forward-thinking policies only a brief drive from Catt's cottage in rural Minnesota.

As a reader attracted to honed writing of the kind Kraus often avoids, I was enchanted by the literary tone of the initial segment.

Being a reader who favors honed writing of the style that Kraus tends to eschew, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the initial part. It possesses a novel degree of detail that accommodates small details, like the container that the protagonist as a child pries out of frozen water at the start of the story, aided by her beloved father. "Look, an ice toy!" she declares; "a lovely toy", he responds, "the nuanced interpretations of terms rolling around in their mouths like piece candy". The author narrates Emma's narrative with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not hers, exactly."

Frustration and Disruption

I was fated to feel let down when I hoped this fresh tone could persist to the end. Kraus notes here that she resents the pleasure those who appreciate polished prose have derived from I Love Dick; she's committed to disjunction, to the untidy aesthetics she shares with her hero Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her earlier works reasserts itself in the middle section. Catt is attempting to do up three dozen dilapidated units in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while traveling between two different states, failing to help her husband curb his addiction. She feels helpless as her spouse transitions between underfunded jobs as an addiction therapist in a world fueled by the anger and fear that powers Trump's victory. A significant portion discusses about the protagonist facing cancellation on a platform, her professional designation altered from "novelist" to "landlord" on the online encyclopedia. She still gives the impression to care a little too much about this. At one point she remarks that she's researching the homicide so that before departing the state, "she could potentially understand something about an the United States that her social media opponents would be unable to grasp, would not even see".

The Murder Narrative

Thus we arrive to the actual killing – and the titular day experienced by the murdered individual with the perpetrator and his associates. Kraus has excellent raw material, and knows hour by hour what transpired when a man named Brandon came to see Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she offered adult photos. He anticipated intimacy but seems amiably to have occupied the day with her companions, mooching around having his vehicle repaired and covering the cost of food and substances, before being shot by Brittney's partner Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has often been institutionalized for aggressive outbursts.

Preoccupation and Open Ends

The protagonist becomes fixated by the story, and I found myself captivated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards accurate chronicling and reckless transgression wrestle in this part. However, I would have preferred her to go further into her personal fixations here. The most interesting character is the character Brittney, who becomes vivid partially because of Catt's identification with her – another bright, bullied girl derailing in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus tells us that Catt converses with Brittney in jail, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The complete segment feels strangely incomplete, to the extent that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par