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The new book is populated with individuals seeking clean slates, struggling to escape drugs or toxic relationships, only to witness hope devolve into conflict. Chris Kraus often employs the phrase "fresh start", making it intentionally weary through recurring use. Examples include "He could make a fresh start" and "They decided to make a fresh start" recur in the narrative. And yet, Kraus herself seems to be making her personal new beginning, since this seems a different type of work – observational, truly literary. But then it proves to be packed with the same dilemmas and aesthetics as her previous works.

From Chance Novelist to Renowned Book

The writer was originally an artist who entered the literary world unintentionally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, structured as missives to a distant beloved, transforming confessional female writing from self-debasement into assassination. She persisted as a writer, but the three subsequent fascinating and rebarbative novels lacked the power and directness that the epistolary style brought to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her identity as a maverick maker who had become a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was significant attention on housing investments. It makes sense that she currently desires to try out fresh narrative sources, directing her gaze to external narratives, at a moment when she states that Trumpian politics renders personal narrative redundant.

Three Generations, Collective Unavoidable Background

The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, spanning multiple eras – all unable to escape their histories. There is the tale of a couple named Emma and Jasper, based on Kraus's parents, relocating from the Bronx to a pastoral setting. There is the narrative of the author, in the character of protagonist Catt Greene, confronting the late recognition of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction a man named Paul. Finally the narrative of a homicide of one directionless individual by another in a community long abandoned by liberal ideals only a short distance from Catt's cottage in the Minnesota countryside.

As a reader drawn to polished prose of the sort Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was enchanted by the novelistic voice of the first section.

As a reader who favors honed writing of the style that the author tends to eschew, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the opening segment. There is a novel degree of detail that allows space for minutiae, like the container that the young Catt pries out of frozen water at the opening of the book, aided by her adored dad. "I found an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a nice toy", he answers, "the ambiguous meanings of language circulating in their speech like piece candy". She tells Emma's story with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not hers, exactly."

Letdown and Fragmentation

I was fated to feel let down when I wished this different style could continue through the novel. Kraus notes here that she is annoyed by the pleasure readers like me have gotten from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disruption, to the unpolished style she has in common with her hero Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her previous novels reasserts itself in the central part. Catt is working on refurbishing 36 run-down apartments in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while traveling between Minnesota and LA, unable to aid Paul control his drinking. She is overwhelmed as Paul cycles through underfunded jobs as an addiction therapist in a society propelled by the rage and anxiety that drives Trump's victory. Multiple pages are devoted about the protagonist facing cancellation on Twitter, her professional designation altered from "novelist" to "property owner" on a reference site. The author still appears to care a little too much about this. On one occasion she remarks that she's looking into the killing so that before exiting the region, "she might be able to learn something about an the United States that her online critics would be unable to grasp, would overlook entirely".

The Murder Narrative

So then we come to the homicide in question – and the eponymous day experienced by the murdered individual with the murderer and his friends. The author possesses compelling foundational content, and knows hour by hour what transpired when Brandon came to see Brittney after connecting via an application where she offered adult photos. He anticipated intimacy but seems amiably to have occupied the day in the company of her associates, mooching around fixing his automobile and paying for snacks and drugs, before being shot by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has often been institutionalized for violent rage.

Obsession and Unfinished Business

Catt develops an obsession by the story, and I was fascinated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards responsible documentation and reckless transgression clash in this segment. But I'd have liked her to delve deeper into 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 derailing in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus tells us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in detention, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The complete segment feels curiously unresolved, to the extent that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par