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The new book features characters pursuing clean slates, attempting to leave behind drugs or abusive marriages, only to witness hope devolve into conflict. Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "fresh start", rendering it deliberately jaded through constant reiteration. Phrases such as "He could make a fresh start" and "They opted for a clean break" appear throughout the story. Meanwhile, Kraus herself is embarking on her personal new beginning, as this appears a novel form of writing – observational, genuinely novelistic. However it turns out to be packed with the same dilemmas and styles as earlier books.

From Accidental Writer to Renowned Book

Chris Kraus began as an artist who transitioned to writing almost accidentally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, structured as epistles to an unresponsive love interest, converting personal female narrative from abjection into defiance. She kept producing books, but the next trio of engaging and challenging novels did not possess the impact and rawness that the correspondence format infused into the voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her role as a maverick maker who had become a major property owner, so there was considerable focus on real estate deals. It follows that she now wants to experiment with different types of content, looking outwards to other people's stories, at a time when she asserts that current political era renders personal narrative unnecessary.

Three Generations, Collective Unavoidable Background

The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, encompassing multiple eras – none able to break free from their pasts. We encounter the narrative about a couple named Emma and Jasper, representations of her own mother and father, relocating from the New York borough to a pastoral setting. There is the narrative of the author, in the persona of a figure named Catt Greene, confronting the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her addict husband her husband Paul. Finally the narrative of a homicide of one troubled youth by another in a town largely deserted by progressive politics only a brief drive from Catt's cottage in a remote part of Minnesota.

For this reader fond of honed writing of the type the author herself often avoids, I was enchanted by the narrative style of the opening part.

As a reader who appreciates precise prose of the variety that the author often disregards, I was seduced by the literary tone of the initial part. There is a fresh level of observation that allows space for minutiae, like the container that the young Catt pries out of frozen water at the opening of the book, assisted by her beloved father. "I found an ice toy!" she declares; "a nice toy", he replies, "the elliptical meanings of words tumbling in their mouths like hard candy". She tells Emma's narrative with interest and closeness. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not precisely her dream."

Disappointment and Disjunction

I was fated to feel let down when I hoped this fresh tone could persist to the end. Kraus notes here that she dislikes the pleasure readers like me have taken from I Love Dick; she's committed to disjunction, to the unpolished style she has in common with her inspiration author Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her earlier works reasserts itself in the middle section. Catt Greene is working on refurbishing 36 run-down apartments in the city's most challenging districts while moving between Minnesota and LA, failing to help Paul control his drinking. She feels helpless as her spouse transitions between underfunded jobs as an addiction therapist in a environment fueled by the anger and fear that powers a political win. A significant portion discusses about the protagonist facing cancellation on a platform, her occupation changed from "novelist" to "landlord" on the online encyclopedia. Kraus still seems to be overly concerned about this. In a moment she says that she's investigating the murder so that before leaving Minnesota, "she might be able to learn something about an America that her online critics would fail to comprehend, would overlook entirely".

The Killing Story

Then we reach to the homicide in question – and the referenced day spent by the deceased with the killer and his associates. Kraus utilizes excellent raw material, and knows hour by hour what transpired when Brandon came to see Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she marketed explicit images. He was hoping for sex but appears congenially to have passed the day in the company of her associates, wandering about getting his car mended and covering the cost of food and substances, before being shot by her romantic interest Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has frequently been hospitalised for aggressive outbursts.

Obsession and Unfinished Business

Catt develops an obsession by the account, and I was intrigued by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards ethical reporting and reckless transgression tussle in this section. But I'd have liked her to explore more thoroughly her individual preoccupations here. The most interesting character is the character Brittney, who comes alive partly through the protagonist's connection to her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman spiraling out of control in a struggling, neglected community. The author informs us that Catt speaks to Brittney in detention, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The whole section feels curiously unresolved, to the point that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par