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This latest work features individuals chasing after clean slates, attempting to leave behind addictions or abusive marriages, only to witness hope devolve into conflict. Chris Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "new beginning", making it intentionally weary through constant reiteration. Examples include "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They chose to begin anew" recur in the story. At the same time, she seems to be making her personal new beginning, since this appears a different type of work – fact-based, genuinely novelistic. But then it turns out to be packed with the same dilemmas and approaches as her previous works.

From Accidental Writer to Cult Classic

The writer was originally an visual artist who transitioned to writing somewhat by chance with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, structured as missives to a distant beloved, transforming confessional female writing from abjection into defiance. She kept producing books, but the next trio of engaging and challenging novels lacked the impact and rawness that the letter form brought to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her position as a renegade artist who had turned into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was considerable focus on real estate deals. It makes sense that she currently desires to explore different types of content, turning outward to the experiences of others, at a moment when she states that current political era turns intimate literature obsolete.

Three Generations, One Unescapable Past

The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, encompassing three generations – all unable to escape their backgrounds. We encounter the narrative about Emma and Jasper, based on Kraus's parents, moving from the urban environment to a pastoral setting. Then there is the narrative of the author, in the character of protagonist Catt Greene, confronting the belated success of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse a man named Paul. The third thread involves the account of a killing of one directionless individual by another in a locality long abandoned by liberal ideals only 80 miles from the protagonist's home in a remote part of Minnesota.

As a reader fond of refined literature of the sort Kraus herself typically rejects, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the first section.

Being a reader who appreciates honed writing of the variety that Kraus tends to eschew, I was seduced by the literary tone of the first section. It possesses a fresh level of observation that allows space for minutiae, like the pail that the young Catt frees from the ice at the start of the story, helped by her beloved father. "I found an ice toy!" she says; "a lovely toy", he answers, "the ambiguous meanings of language tumbling in their mouths like piece candy". She tells the tale of Emma with interest and closeness. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not hers, exactly."

Letdown and Fragmentation

I was bound to become frustrated when I wished this new voice could persist to the end. The author states here that she resents the enjoyment those who appreciate polished prose have taken from I Love Dick; she's committed to fragmentation, to the unpolished style she echoes from her inspiration writer Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her previous novels comes back in the second segment. The protagonist is attempting to do up multiple decrepit residences in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while traveling between Minnesota and LA, unsuccessful in assisting Paul curb his addiction. She experiences powerlessness as Paul cycles through poorly supported positions as an substance abuse counselor in a environment driven by the rage and anxiety that underpins Trump's victory. There are several pages about the protagonist facing cancellation on Twitter, her listed profession modified from "writer" to "property owner" on a reference site. Kraus still seems to care a little too much about this. In a moment she says that she's researching the homicide so that before exiting the region, "she could potentially understand something about an America that her online critics would be unable to grasp, would overlook entirely".

The Homicide Account

So then we come to the actual killing – and the eponymous day spent by the deceased with the murderer and his friends. Kraus has compelling foundational content, and details moment by moment what transpired when the victim Brandon came to visit Brittney after meeting her on an app where she sold sex pictures. He was hoping for sex but appears congenially to have passed the day in the company of her associates, mooching around having his vehicle repaired and funding treats and narcotics, before being shot by Brittney's partner Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has repeatedly received inpatient care for violent rage.

Fascination and Incompletion

Catt gets obsessed by the narrative, and I found myself captivated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards accurate chronicling and reckless transgression wrestle in this part. Yet I wished her to explore more thoroughly her personal fixations here. The standout figure is the character Brittney, who becomes vivid partially because of Catt seeing herself in her – another bright, bullied girl going off the rails in a struggling, neglected community. The author informs us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in detention, but she fails to enact these dialogues. This entire part feels strangely incomplete, to the degree that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par