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The new book is populated with protagonists pursuing clean slates, trying to break free from addictions or toxic relationships, only to witness hope devolve into conflict. Chris Kraus often employs the phrase "new beginning", transforming it into deliberately jaded through recurring use. Sentences like "He aimed to start over" and "They opted for a clean break" recur in the narrative. Meanwhile, she appears to be undertaking her own fresh start, because this seems a new kind of book – fact-based, truly literary. But then it proves to be packed with the familiar conflicts and approaches as her previous works.

From Accidental Writer to Iconic Work

Kraus was originally an artist who entered the literary world unintentionally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, made up of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, transforming confessional female writing from humiliation into assassination. She continued writing, but the next trio of engaging and challenging novels missed the shock and immediacy that the correspondence format infused into the narrative voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her role as a renegade artist who had turned into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was much discussion on housing investments. It makes sense that she currently desires to explore fresh narrative sources, turning outward to external narratives, at a period in which she states that contemporary political climate makes confessional writing redundant.

Several Eras, Shared Inescapable History

The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, spanning several time periods – none able to break free from their histories. We encounter the narrative about characters Emma and Jasper, versions of the author's parents, transitioning from the urban environment to the Connecticut countryside. There is the story of Kraus herself, in the character of a figure named Catt Greene, reckoning with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction her husband Paul. And there is the account of a killing of one directionless individual by another in a town long abandoned by progressive politics only a short distance from Catt's cottage in a remote part of Minnesota.

From my perspective as a reader fond of honed writing of the kind the author herself tends to eschew, I was seduced by the narrative style of the first section.

Being a reader who favors precise prose of the style that the author tends to eschew, I was seduced by the storytelling approach of the opening segment. It possesses a fresh level of observation that accommodates minutiae, like the bucket that the youthful Catt pries out of frozen water at the start of the story, helped by her adored dad. "I found an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a nice toy", he answers, "the ambiguous meanings of language rolling around in their mouths like piece candy". The author narrates the tale of Emma with interest and closeness. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not precisely her dream."

Disappointment and Disjunction

I was bound to become frustrated when I expected this new voice could last out the book. Kraus notes here that she dislikes the satisfaction readers like me have gotten from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disruption, to the messy artistic approach she has in common with her idol writer Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her previous novels comes back in the central part. Catt Greene is working on refurbishing multiple decrepit residences in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while shuttling between Minnesota and LA, failing to help Paul manage his alcohol use. She experiences powerlessness as Paul transitions between underfunded jobs as an recovery specialist in a environment fueled by the anger and fear that drives an electoral success. A significant portion discusses about Catt being cancelled on social media, her listed profession modified from "author" to "property owner" on a reference site. The author still appears to invest excessive emotion about this. On one occasion she says that she's researching the homicide so that before leaving Minnesota, "she might be able to learn something about an the nation that her Twitter detractors would be unable to grasp, would not even perceive".

The Killing Story

Thus we arrive to the homicide in question – and the eponymous day passed by the murdered individual with the killer and his companions. The author possesses great source material, and reconstructs step by step what transpired when a man named Brandon came to see Brittney after meeting her on an app where she offered adult photos. He anticipated intimacy but seems affably to have spent the day in the company of her associates, loitering getting his car mended and funding treats and narcotics, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's partner a man named Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has frequently been hospitalised for violent rage.

Preoccupation and Open Ends

Catt develops an obsession by the account, and I was intrigued by the way that her twin drives towards responsible documentation and reckless transgression tussle in this section. However, I would have preferred her to delve deeper into her individual preoccupations here. The most interesting character is Brittney herself, who becomes vivid in part due to Catt's identification with her – another bright, bullied girl spiraling out of control in a difficult, overlooked locality. The author informs us that Catt speaks to Brittney in jail, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The whole section feels curiously unresolved, to the degree that her narrative ends almost mid-par