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This latest work features protagonists chasing after fresh starts, trying to break free from drugs or toxic relationships, only to witness hope devolve into conflict. Chris Kraus often employs the phrase "new beginning", transforming it into intentionally weary through recurring use. Sentences like "He aimed to start over" and "They chose to begin anew" appear throughout the narrative. Meanwhile, the author herself is embarking on her own fresh start, as this seems a new kind of book – observational, authentically narrative. Yet it turns out to be packed with the same dilemmas and aesthetics as earlier books.

From Unplanned Author to Cult Classic

Chris Kraus began as an artist who transitioned to writing unintentionally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, made up of letters to an unreceptive lover, converting confessional female writing from self-debasement into defiance. She continued writing, but the next trio of engaging and challenging novels missed the impact and rawness that the epistolary style imparted to the tone of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her identity as a nonconformist creator who had turned into a major property owner, so there was significant attention on housing investments. It is logical that she currently desires to explore different types of content, looking outwards to the experiences of others, at a period in which she claims that contemporary political climate turns intimate literature redundant.

Three Generations, Shared Inescapable History

The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, covering three generations – all unable to escape their histories. The book includes the tale of characters Emma and Jasper, versions of Kraus's parents, relocating from the Bronx to the Connecticut countryside. Additionally the narrative of the author, in the character of protagonist Catt Greene, confronting the late recognition of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her substance-dependent spouse a man named Paul. Finally the account of a killing of one troubled youth by another in a community long abandoned by liberal ideals only a brief drive from the protagonist's home in rural Minnesota.

For this reader fond of refined literature of the kind Kraus typically rejects, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the opening part.

Being a reader who appreciates honed writing of the style that the author often disregards, I was seduced by the storytelling approach of the opening segment. It possesses a new quality of attentiveness that makes room for minutiae, like the bucket that the young Catt dislodges from ice at the start of the story, assisted by her beloved father. "Look, an ice toy!" she says; "a nice toy", he responds, "the elliptical meanings of words tumbling in their mouths like piece candy". She tells Emma's story with interest and closeness. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not precisely her dream."

Letdown and Fragmentation

I was fated to feel let down when I hoped this different style could persist to the end. The author states here that she dislikes the satisfaction those who appreciate polished prose have taken from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disruption, to the untidy aesthetics she echoes from her inspiration Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her previous novels comes back in the middle section. The protagonist is attempting to do up three dozen dilapidated units in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while shuttling between Minnesota and LA, unsuccessful in assisting Paul curb his addiction. She feels helpless as her spouse cycles through underfunded jobs as an substance abuse counselor in a society fueled by the hostility and dread that underpins an electoral success. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt's social media ostracism on Twitter, her listed profession modified from "novelist" to "property owner" on Wikipedia. Kraus still seems to care a little too much about this. At one point she states that she's investigating the murder so that before exiting the region, "she could potentially understand something about an the United States that her online critics would be unable to grasp, would overlook entirely".

The Murder Narrative

Then we reach to the murder itself – and the titular day passed by the murdered individual with the killer and his associates. Kraus utilizes excellent raw material, and knows hour by hour what occurred as a man named Brandon came to meet Brittney after connecting via an application where she marketed explicit images. He sought a sexual encounter but appears congenially to have passed the day with her companions, mooching around having his vehicle repaired and paying for snacks and drugs, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's boyfriend a man named Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has often been institutionalized for violent rage.

Preoccupation and Open Ends

Catt gets obsessed by the narrative, and I was intrigued by the way that her twin drives towards responsible documentation and audacious rule-breaking tussle in this section. Yet I wished her to delve deeper into her individual preoccupations here. The compelling persona is the character Brittney, who comes alive partly through Catt seeing herself in her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual derailing in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus notes that Catt speaks to Brittney in prison, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. The whole section feels curiously unresolved, to the extent that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par