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The new book features individuals chasing after new beginnings, attempting to leave behind addictions or abusive marriages, only to find hope curdling into conflict. Kraus often employs the phrase "clean slate", making it willfully cynical through recurring use. Phrases such as "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They decided to make a fresh start" are scattered across the text. And yet, Kraus herself is embarking on her own fresh start, as this appears a different type of work – observational, genuinely novelistic. But then it proves to be filled with the same dilemmas and aesthetics as past novels.

From Accidental Writer to Iconic Work

Chris Kraus started out as an creative who entered the literary world unintentionally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, structured as missives to a distant beloved, elevating personal female narrative from abjection into assassination. She kept producing books, but the three subsequent compelling and abrasive novels lacked the power and directness that the correspondence format imparted to the tone of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her identity as a maverick maker who had become a major property owner, so there was much discussion on property transactions. It is logical that she currently desires to explore new kinds of material, turning outward to the experiences of others, at a moment when she asserts that contemporary political climate makes confessional writing obsolete.

Multiple Generations, Shared Inescapable History

The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, encompassing three generations – all unable to escape their histories. We encounter the narrative about a couple named Emma and Jasper, representations of her own mother and father, moving from the New York borough to the Connecticut countryside. Then there is the narrative of the author, in the persona of protagonist Catt Greene, reckoning with the belated success of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction her husband Paul. Finally the account of a killing of one troubled youth by another in a locality largely deserted by liberal ideals only 80 miles from the protagonist's home in a remote part of Minnesota.

For this reader fond of honed writing of the kind Kraus typically rejects, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the initial segment.

Being a reader who favors honed writing of the variety that Kraus often disregards, I was won over by the storytelling approach of the first section. It possesses a new quality of attentiveness that accommodates small details, like the pail that the protagonist as a child frees from the ice at the opening of the book, assisted by her beloved father. "Look, an ice toy!" she says; "a lovely toy", he responds, "the elliptical meanings of words rolling around in their mouths like hard candy". Kraus writes Emma's story with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not hers, exactly."

Frustration and Disruption

I was bound to become frustrated when I hoped this fresh tone could persist to the end. Kraus says here that she is annoyed by the satisfaction audiences such as myself have taken from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disruption, to the unpolished style she shares with her inspiration author Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her previous novels returns in the middle section. The protagonist is working on refurbishing 36 run-down apartments in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while moving between the Midwest and the West Coast, unsuccessful in assisting her husband manage his alcohol use. She experiences powerlessness as Paul transitions between low-resource employment as an addiction therapist in a world fueled by the hostility and dread that underpins an electoral success. There are several pages about Catt being cancelled on Twitter, her occupation changed from "writer" to "property owner" on Wikipedia. She still gives the impression to be overly concerned about this. In a moment she remarks that she's investigating the murder so that before leaving Minnesota, "she could potentially understand something about an the nation that her online critics would fail to comprehend, would not even see".

The Murder Narrative

Thus we arrive to the homicide in question – and the referenced day experienced by the murdered individual with the murderer and his companions. The author possesses great source material, and details moment by moment what happened when Brandon came to visit Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she sold sex pictures. He was hoping for sex but appears congenially to have passed the day alongside her friends, wandering about having his vehicle repaired and funding treats and narcotics, before being shot by her romantic interest Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has frequently been hospitalised for aggressive outbursts.

Obsession and Unfinished Business

Catt develops an obsession by the narrative, and I was intrigued by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards ethical reporting and daring boundary-pushing wrestle in this part. However, I would have preferred her to delve deeper into her individual preoccupations here. The most interesting character is the character Brittney, who becomes vivid in part due to the protagonist's connection to her – another bright, bullied girl derailing in a difficult, overlooked locality. The author informs us that Catt converses with Brittney in jail, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The complete segment feels oddly unfinished, to the degree that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par