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This latest work features protagonists chasing after fresh starts, trying to break free from addictions or abusive marriages, only to find hope curdling into conflict. The author frequently uses the phrase "new beginning", rendering it intentionally weary through its repetitions. Phrases such as "He could make a fresh start" and "They decided to make a fresh start" are scattered across the text. And yet, the author herself appears to be undertaking her individual reinvention, as this seems a novel form of writing – observational, truly literary. However it reveals itself to be packed with the same dilemmas and approaches as past novels.

From Unplanned Author to Iconic Work

Chris Kraus began as an artist who transitioned to writing unintentionally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, structured as epistles to an unresponsive love interest, converting personal female narrative from humiliation into rebellion. She kept producing books, but the following three engaging and challenging novels missed the impact and rawness that the epistolary style infused into the voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her identity as a nonconformist creator who had evolved into a extensive real estate holder, so there was significant attention on housing investments. It is logical that she currently desires to try out new kinds of material, directing her gaze to other people's stories, at a period in which she asserts that contemporary political climate makes confessional writing unnecessary.

Three Generations, One Unescapable Past

The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, spanning multiple eras – none able to break free from their histories. The book includes the story of characters Emma and Jasper, representations of the author's parents, transitioning from the urban environment to rural Connecticut. Then there is the account of Kraus, in the persona of protagonist Catt Greene, reckoning with the belated success of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse Paul. Finally the story of the murder of one directionless individual by another in a locality long abandoned by forward-thinking policies only a short distance from the protagonist's home in the Minnesota countryside.

For this reader attracted to refined literature of the kind the author herself often avoids, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the first section.

As someone who reads who appreciates precise prose of the variety that Kraus herself usually avoids, I was captivated by the literary tone of the opening segment. It exhibits a novel degree of detail that allows space for trivial aspects, like the pail that the youthful Catt pries out of frozen water at the beginning of the narrative, aided by her cherished parent. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she exclaims; "a lovely toy", he answers, "the nuanced interpretations of terms rolling around in their mouths like piece candy". The author narrates Emma's story with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not hers, exactly."

Letdown and Fragmentation

I was destined to be disappointed when I expected this different style could continue through the novel. Kraus says here that she is annoyed by the satisfaction those who appreciate polished prose have derived from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disjunction, to the untidy aesthetics she shares with her inspiration writer Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her earlier works reasserts itself in the middle section. Catt Greene is working on refurbishing 36 run-down apartments in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while shuttling between the Midwest and the West Coast, unable to aid her husband control his drinking. She experiences powerlessness as Paul cycles through low-resource employment as an addiction therapist in a world propelled by the rage and anxiety that drives an electoral success. There are several pages about Catt's social media ostracism on Twitter, her listed profession modified from "novelist" to "real estate holder" on Wikipedia. Kraus still seems to be overly concerned about this. On one occasion she says that she's investigating the murder so that before departing the state, "she may grasp something about an the nation that her online critics would fail to comprehend, would overlook entirely".

The Killing Story

So then we come to the homicide in question – and the eponymous day spent by the deceased with the killer and his associates. The author possesses great source material, and details moment by moment what occurred as a man named Brandon came to meet Brittney after meeting her on an app where she marketed explicit images. He anticipated intimacy but seems affably to have spent the day alongside her friends, loitering getting his car mended and funding treats and narcotics, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's partner Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has frequently been hospitalised for fits of anger.

Obsession and Unfinished Business

Catt develops an obsession by the account, and I was intrigued by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards accurate chronicling and audacious rule-breaking tussle in this section. But I'd have liked her to delve deeper into her personal fixations here. The most interesting character is Brittney, who becomes vivid partly through Catt seeing herself in her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual spiraling out of control in a struggling, neglected community. The author informs us that Catt converses with Brittney in jail, but she fails to enact these dialogues. This entire part feels strangely incomplete, to the degree that her narrative ends almost mid-par