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The new book is populated with characters pursuing fresh starts, attempting to leave behind substance abuse or toxic relationships, only to see hope turn into violence. Chris Kraus often employs the phrase "new beginning", transforming it into deliberately jaded through constant reiteration. Phrases such as "He aimed to start over" and "They chose to begin anew" are scattered across the text. And yet, the author herself seems to be making her individual reinvention, as this seems a new kind of book – fact-based, authentically narrative. But then it proves to be packed with the familiar conflicts and approaches as her previous works.

From Unplanned Author to Renowned Book

The writer began as an creative who became a writer somewhat by chance with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, made up of letters to an unreceptive lover, converting intimate women's literature from humiliation into assassination. She continued writing, but the next trio of compelling and abrasive 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 role as a renegade artist who had become a major property owner, so there was considerable focus on housing investments. It follows that she presently aims to explore different types of content, directing her gaze to the experiences of others, at a period in which she states that Trumpian politics makes confessional writing obsolete.

Several Eras, Shared Inescapable History

The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, spanning several time periods – each trapped by their backgrounds. There is the story of a couple named Emma and Jasper, based on her own mother and father, moving from the Bronx to rural Connecticut. Then there is the account of Kraus, in the guise of protagonist Catt Greene, confronting the late recognition of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her substance-dependent spouse her husband Paul. The third thread involves the account of a killing of one troubled youth by another in a locality long abandoned by forward-thinking policies only 80 miles from Catt's cottage in rural Minnesota.

From my perspective as a reader fond of polished prose of the sort the author herself often avoids, I was enchanted by the novelistic voice of the initial segment.

As a reader drawn to crafted language of the kind that Kraus herself usually avoids, I was captivated by the storytelling approach of the initial part. There is a fresh level of observation that makes room for trivial aspects, like the bucket that the protagonist as a child pries out of frozen water at the opening of the book, helped by her cherished parent. "I found an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a great plaything", he responds, "the elliptical meanings of words tumbling in their mouths like sweet treats". She tells Emma's narrative with inquiry and familiarity. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not entirely her own."

Disappointment and Disjunction

I was bound to become frustrated when I wished this different style could persist to the end. Kraus notes here that she dislikes the enjoyment readers like me have gotten from I Love Dick; she's committed to disjunction, to the messy artistic approach she has in common with her idol Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her earlier works reasserts itself in the central part. Catt Greene is working on refurbishing multiple decrepit residences in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while traveling between Minnesota and LA, unsuccessful in assisting Paul curb his addiction. She is overwhelmed as Paul cycles through underfunded jobs as an substance abuse counselor in a environment fueled by the rage and anxiety that underpins an electoral success. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt's social media ostracism on a platform, her listed profession modified from "novelist" to "real estate holder" on Wikipedia. Kraus still seems to invest excessive emotion about this. At one point she states that she's investigating the murder so that before departing the state, "she may grasp something about an America that her social media opponents would fail to comprehend, would not even perceive".

The Homicide Account

Then we reach to the murder itself – and the eponymous day passed by the murdered individual with the killer and his friends. Kraus utilizes compelling foundational content, and details moment by moment what happened when Brandon came to meet Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she offered adult photos. He anticipated intimacy but appears congenially to have passed the day alongside her friends, wandering about having his vehicle repaired and covering the cost of food and substances, before being murdered by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has frequently been hospitalised for fits of anger.

Obsession and Unfinished Business

Catt gets obsessed by the story, and I found myself captivated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards responsible documentation and daring boundary-pushing tussle in this section. However, I would have preferred her to explore more thoroughly her personal fixations here. The most interesting character is the character Brittney, who becomes vivid partly through Catt seeing herself in her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman going off the rails in a struggling, neglected community. The author informs us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in jail, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The complete segment feels oddly unfinished, to the extent that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par