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This latest work is populated with protagonists seeking clean slates, struggling to escape drugs or toxic relationships, only to witness hope devolve into conflict. Chris Kraus frequently uses the phrase "fresh start", rendering it willfully cynical through its repetitions. Phrases such as "He aimed to start over" and "They decided to make a fresh start" are scattered across the story. Meanwhile, the author herself seems to be making her personal new beginning, because this seems a new kind of book – observational, truly literary. Yet it proves to be packed with the recurring issues and aesthetics as earlier books.

From Accidental Writer to Cult Classic

The writer was originally an visual artist who became a writer unintentionally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, made up of letters to an unreceptive lover, elevating intimate women's literature from abjection into defiance. She persisted as a writer, but the following three fascinating and rebarbative novels did not possess the impact and rawness that the epistolary style brought to the voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her identity as a nonconformist creator who had turned into a major property owner, so there was much discussion on real estate deals. It makes sense that she currently desires to experiment with different types of content, turning outward to the experiences of others, at a period in which she states that Trumpian politics turns intimate literature obsolete.

Several Eras, One Unescapable Past

The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, spanning multiple eras – each trapped by their pasts. The book includes the tale of a couple named Emma and Jasper, versions of the author's parents, moving from the Bronx to rural Connecticut. Then there is the narrative of the author, in the guise of protagonist Catt Greene, reckoning with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her addict husband her husband Paul. And there is the account of a killing of one directionless individual by another in a locality mostly forsaken by progressive politics only a brief drive from Catt's rural residence in a remote part of Minnesota.

From my perspective as a reader drawn to honed writing of the kind Kraus herself typically rejects, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the first section.

As someone who reads who appreciates honed writing of the kind that the author usually avoids, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the opening segment. There is a new quality of attentiveness that accommodates minutiae, like the bucket that the young Catt frees from the ice at the opening of the book, aided by her beloved father. "I found an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a nice toy", he answers, "the ambiguous meanings of language circulating in their speech like hard candy". The author narrates the tale of Emma with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not entirely her own."

Letdown and Fragmentation

I was fated to feel let down when I hoped this new voice could last out the book. Kraus says here that she resents the pleasure readers like me have taken from I Love Dick; she's devoted to fragmentation, to the untidy aesthetics she has in common with her inspiration Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her earlier works returns in the second segment. The protagonist is working on refurbishing three dozen dilapidated units in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while shuttling between the Midwest and the West Coast, unsuccessful in assisting Paul manage his alcohol use. She experiences powerlessness as her spouse cycles through poorly supported positions as an recovery specialist in a society driven by the hostility and dread that powers a political win. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt's social media ostracism on Twitter, her listed profession modified from "writer" to "landlord" on a reference site. Kraus still seems to care a little too much about this. On one occasion she says that she's investigating the murder so that before exiting the region, "she could potentially understand something about an the nation that her Twitter detractors would be unable to grasp, would not even perceive".

The Homicide Account

So then we come to the murder itself – and the titular day spent by the victim with the perpetrator and his associates. The author possesses great source material, and details moment by moment what transpired when a man named Brandon came to meet Brittney after meeting her on an app where she sold sex pictures. He anticipated intimacy 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 her romantic interest Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has often been institutionalized for fits of anger.

Fascination and Incompletion

Catt develops an obsession by the story, and I found myself captivated by the way that her twin drives towards ethical reporting and daring boundary-pushing clash in this segment. However, I would have preferred her to delve deeper into her own obsessions here. The compelling persona is Brittney herself, who comes alive in part due to Catt's identification with her – another bright, bullied girl spiraling out of control in a troubled, forgotten town. The author informs us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in jail, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. This entire part feels oddly unfinished, to the point that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par