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The new book features characters seeking fresh starts, struggling to escape drugs or abusive marriages, only to see hope turn into violence. The author repeatedly invokes the phrase "fresh start", making it deliberately jaded through its repetitions. Phrases such as "He aimed to start over" and "They opted for a clean break" recur in the story. And yet, Kraus herself seems to be making her individual reinvention, because this appears a different type of work – documentarian, authentically narrative. Yet it reveals itself to be filled with the familiar conflicts and styles as her previous works.

From Chance Novelist to Iconic Work

Chris Kraus started out as an visual artist who transitioned to writing somewhat by chance with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, which was composed of letters to an unreceptive lover, elevating intimate women's literature from abjection into assassination. She kept producing books, but the three subsequent engaging and challenging novels missed the power and directness that the letter form imparted to the tone of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her identity as a renegade artist who had become a extensive real estate holder, so there was significant attention on real estate deals. It follows that she presently aims to try out new kinds of material, directing her gaze to the experiences of others, at a moment when she asserts that Trumpian politics turns intimate literature obsolete.

Several Eras, Shared Inescapable History

The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, covering three generations – all unable to escape their backgrounds. There is the narrative about Emma and Jasper, based on Kraus's parents, moving from the urban environment to a pastoral setting. Additionally the narrative of the author, in the character of protagonist Catt Greene, grappling with 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 directionless individual by another in a locality largely deserted by liberal ideals only a short distance from Catt's cottage in rural Minnesota.

As a reader drawn to polished prose of the sort Kraus herself often avoids, I was captivated by the literary tone of the first section.

As a reader who appreciates precise prose of the kind that Kraus herself often disregards, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the initial part. It exhibits a novel degree of detail that makes room for trivial aspects, like the container that the youthful Catt pries out of frozen water at the start of the story, helped by her adored dad. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she declares; "a nice toy", he answers, "the elliptical meanings of words circulating in their speech like hard candy". Kraus writes Emma's narrative with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not hers, exactly."

Disappointment and Disjunction

I was bound to become frustrated when I hoped this fresh tone could last out the book. Kraus says here that she resents the enjoyment readers like me have taken from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to fragmentation, to the messy artistic approach she shares with her hero author Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her previous novels comes back in the central part. Catt is working on refurbishing multiple decrepit residences in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while moving between two different states, failing to help Paul manage his alcohol use. She experiences powerlessness as Paul moves between poorly supported positions as an addiction therapist in a world propelled by the rage and anxiety that underpins a political win. There are several pages about Catt being cancelled on a platform, her occupation changed from "author" to "property owner" on a reference site. The author still appears to care a little too much about this. At one point she states that she's looking into the killing so that before departing the state, "she may grasp something about an America that her online critics would fail to comprehend, would not even see".

The Murder Narrative

So then we come to the murder itself – and the eponymous day passed by the murdered individual with the killer and his companions. Kraus utilizes compelling foundational content, and reconstructs step by step what happened when Brandon came to meet Brittney after meeting her on an app where she marketed explicit images. He anticipated intimacy but seems affably to have spent the day with her companions, mooching around getting his car mended and funding treats and narcotics, before being shot by her romantic interest Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has often been institutionalized for violent rage.

Preoccupation and Open Ends

The protagonist becomes fixated by the story, and I found myself captivated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards ethical reporting and daring boundary-pushing tussle in this section. However, I would have preferred her to go further into her personal fixations here. The compelling persona is Brittney, who gains dimension partially because of Catt's identification with her – another bright, bullied girl spiraling out of control in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus tells us that Catt converses with Brittney in detention, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. This entire part feels curiously unresolved, to the degree that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par