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This latest work is populated with protagonists pursuing clean slates, trying to break free from addictions or harmful partnerships, only to witness hope devolve into conflict. Chris Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "fresh start", transforming it into willfully cynical through constant reiteration. Examples include "He aimed to start over" and "They chose to begin anew" appear throughout the narrative. Meanwhile, she seems to be making her individual reinvention, since this appears a new kind of book – fact-based, truly literary. But then it turns out to be laden with the recurring issues and styles as earlier books.

From Chance Novelist to Renowned Book

The writer began as an visual artist who became a writer almost accidentally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, structured as missives to a distant beloved, converting intimate women's literature from humiliation into defiance. She persisted as a writer, but the following three compelling and abrasive novels missed the power and directness that the epistolary style imparted to the tone of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her role as a nonconformist creator who had evolved into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was much discussion on property transactions. It follows that she presently aims to explore different types of content, looking outwards to the experiences of others, at a time when she states that Trumpian politics makes confessional writing redundant.

Several Eras, Shared Inescapable History

The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, spanning three generations – all unable to escape their histories. We encounter the story of a couple named Emma and Jasper, versions of her own mother and father, moving from the New York borough to a pastoral setting. Additionally the story of Kraus herself, in the guise of protagonist Catt Greene, confronting the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her substance-dependent spouse Paul. And there is the narrative of a homicide of one directionless individual by another in a town largely deserted by liberal ideals only a short distance from Catt's rural residence in rural Minnesota.

For this reader fond of honed writing of the kind Kraus typically rejects, I was enchanted by the novelistic voice of the first section.

As someone who reads who favors precise prose of the style that Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was captivated by the storytelling approach of the first section. There is a novel degree of detail that accommodates small details, like the container that the young Catt dislodges from ice at the opening of the book, assisted by her beloved father. "Look, an ice toy!" she says; "a nice toy", he answers, "the elliptical meanings of words tumbling in their mouths like sweet treats". She tells the tale of Emma with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not precisely her dream."

Frustration and Disruption

I was fated to feel let down when I expected this fresh tone could continue through the novel. Kraus says here that she dislikes the satisfaction those who appreciate polished prose have derived from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disruption, to the messy artistic approach she has in common with her hero Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her earlier works returns in the central part. Catt is attempting to do up three dozen dilapidated units in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while traveling between the Midwest and the West Coast, unsuccessful in assisting Paul curb his addiction. She experiences powerlessness as Paul moves between underfunded jobs as an addiction therapist in a environment driven by the rage and anxiety that powers Trump's victory. A significant portion discusses about Catt's social media ostracism on a platform, her professional designation altered from "author" to "property owner" on Wikipedia. She still gives the impression to invest excessive emotion about this. In a moment she says that she's researching the homicide so that before departing the state, "she could potentially understand something about an the nation that her Twitter detractors would fail to comprehend, would not even see".

The Homicide Account

So then we come to the murder itself – and the referenced day passed by the murdered individual with the killer and his friends. Kraus has compelling foundational content, and knows hour by hour what happened when the victim Brandon came to see Brittney after meeting her on an app where she sold sex pictures. He was hoping for sex but seems amiably to have occupied the day in the company of her associates, mooching around getting his car mended and paying for snacks and drugs, before being murdered by Brittney's partner a man named Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has often been institutionalized for aggressive outbursts.

Obsession and Unfinished Business

Catt gets obsessed by the story, and I found myself captivated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards accurate chronicling and reckless transgression tussle in this section. Yet I wished her to delve deeper into her personal fixations here. The most interesting character is Brittney, who becomes vivid partly through the protagonist's connection to her – another bright, bullied girl spiraling out of control in a troubled, forgotten town. The author informs us that Catt converses with Brittney in detention, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. This entire part feels strangely incomplete, to the degree that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par