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The new book is populated with protagonists chasing after new beginnings, struggling to escape substance abuse or abusive marriages, only to see hope turn into conflict. Chris Kraus frequently uses the phrase "new beginning", transforming it into willfully cynical through constant reiteration. Sentences like "He could make a fresh start" and "They opted for a clean break" are scattered across the narrative. Meanwhile, she appears to be undertaking her individual reinvention, because this appears a novel form of writing – observational, authentically narrative. Yet it proves to be filled with the recurring issues and approaches as earlier books.

From Unplanned Author to Iconic Work

Chris Kraus started out as an artist who entered the literary world unintentionally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, structured as epistles to an unresponsive love interest, converting intimate women's literature from self-debasement into defiance. She continued writing, but the three subsequent engaging and challenging novels did not possess the impact and rawness that the epistolary style imparted to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her position as a maverick maker who had turned into a major property owner, so there was considerable focus on real estate deals. It follows that she now wants to try out new kinds of material, looking outwards to external narratives, at a time when she claims that current political era makes confessional writing redundant.

Multiple Generations, Collective Unavoidable Background

The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, encompassing multiple eras – all unable to escape their histories. The book includes the story of characters Emma and Jasper, representations of her own mother and father, transitioning from the urban environment to the Connecticut countryside. There is the account of Kraus, in the persona of protagonist Catt Greene, confronting the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse her husband Paul. And there is the story of the murder of one lost young man by another in a community long abandoned by liberal ideals only a short distance from Catt's rural residence in the Minnesota countryside.

As a reader drawn to honed writing of the type Kraus herself often avoids, I was seduced by the literary tone of the opening part.

Being a reader who favors precise prose of the kind that Kraus tends to eschew, I was won over by the novelistic voice of the first section. There is a new quality of attentiveness that allows space for small details, like the pail that the youthful Catt dislodges from ice at the opening of the book, assisted by her cherished parent. "I found an ice toy!" she says; "a nice toy", he responds, "the ambiguous meanings of language circulating in their speech like hard candy". Kraus writes Emma's narrative with inquiry and familiarity. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not precisely her dream."

Frustration and Disruption

I was fated to feel let down when I wished this fresh tone could continue through the novel. Kraus says here that she is annoyed by the satisfaction those who appreciate polished prose have derived from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to fragmentation, to the unpolished style she shares with her inspiration author Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her past books returns in the central part. The protagonist is attempting to do up multiple decrepit residences in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while moving between Minnesota and LA, unsuccessful in assisting Paul control his drinking. She is overwhelmed as Paul cycles through poorly supported positions as an recovery specialist in a society fueled by the anger and fear that drives a political win. There are several pages about Catt being cancelled on social media, her listed profession modified from "author" to "property owner" on a reference site. The author still appears to care a little too much about this. On one occasion she says that she's looking into the killing 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 Killing Story

Thus we arrive to the murder itself – and the titular day spent by the deceased with the perpetrator and his associates. Kraus has great source material, and reconstructs step by step what occurred as a man named Brandon came to visit Brittney after meeting her on an app where she marketed explicit images. He anticipated intimacy but appears congenially to have passed the day in the company of her associates, wandering about having his vehicle repaired and covering the cost of food and substances, before being shot by Brittney's partner Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has repeatedly received inpatient care for aggressive outbursts.

Obsession and Unfinished Business

Catt gets obsessed by the story, and I was fascinated by the way that her twin drives towards ethical reporting and reckless transgression tussle in this section. But I'd have liked her to go further into her individual preoccupations here. The standout figure is the character Brittney, who becomes vivid partly through Catt seeing herself in her – another bright, bullied girl derailing in a difficult, overlooked locality. The author informs us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in prison, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The complete segment feels strangely incomplete, to the extent that her narrative ends almost mid-par