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This latest work features characters seeking new beginnings, struggling to escape addictions or abusive marriages, only to witness hope devolve into conflict. Chris Kraus frequently uses the phrase "fresh start", making it deliberately jaded through constant reiteration. Sentences like "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They chose to begin anew" recur in the text. Meanwhile, Kraus herself is embarking on her personal new beginning, because this appears a different type of work – observational, truly literary. However it proves to be laden with the recurring issues and aesthetics as earlier books.

From Unplanned Author to Iconic Work

Kraus started out as an visual artist who entered the literary world almost accidentally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, which was composed of missives to a distant beloved, elevating confessional female writing from self-debasement into assassination. She kept producing books, but the following three engaging and challenging novels lacked the power and directness that the letter form infused into the narrative voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her role as a maverick maker who had become a major property owner, so there was considerable focus on property transactions. It makes sense that she presently aims to try out new kinds of material, directing her gaze to other people's stories, at a time when she asserts that Trumpian politics makes confessional writing unnecessary.

Multiple Generations, One Unescapable Past

The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, encompassing several time periods – all unable to escape their histories. There is the tale of a couple named Emma and Jasper, versions of her own mother and father, transitioning from the urban environment to a pastoral setting. There is the narrative of the author, in the guise of protagonist Catt Greene, reckoning with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her addict husband Paul. Finally the account of a killing of one directionless individual by another in a community mostly forsaken by forward-thinking policies only a brief drive from Catt's cottage in rural Minnesota.

For this reader attracted to honed writing of the type Kraus often avoids, I was enchanted by the novelistic voice of the first section.

Being a reader drawn to honed writing of the style that Kraus herself often disregards, I was won over by the storytelling approach of the initial part. It possesses a new quality of attentiveness that allows space for minutiae, like the container that the protagonist as a child dislodges from ice at the start of the story, helped by her cherished parent. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she exclaims; "a nice toy", he answers, "the ambiguous meanings of language rolling around in their mouths like sweet treats". Kraus writes Emma's narrative with curiosity and intimacy. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not hers, exactly."

Frustration and Disruption

I was bound to become frustrated when I hoped this fresh tone could last out the book. The author states here that she is annoyed by the enjoyment audiences such as myself have gotten from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disruption, to the unpolished style she has in common with her idol writer Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her past books returns in the second segment. Catt is trying to renovate 36 run-down apartments in the city's most challenging districts while moving between Minnesota and LA, unsuccessful in assisting Paul curb his addiction. She experiences powerlessness as Paul moves between poorly supported positions as an recovery specialist in a society propelled by the anger and fear that underpins an electoral success. There are several pages about Catt being cancelled on Twitter, 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 states that she's looking into the killing so that before leaving Minnesota, "she could potentially understand something about an America that her social media opponents would fail to comprehend, would not even see".

The Homicide Account

So then we come to the murder itself – and the titular day experienced by the murdered individual with the perpetrator and his associates. Kraus utilizes compelling foundational content, and details moment by moment what happened when Brandon came to visit Brittney after meeting her on an app where she offered adult photos. He anticipated intimacy but appears congenially to have passed the day alongside her friends, wandering about having his vehicle repaired and paying for snacks and drugs, before being murdered by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has often been institutionalized for violent rage.

Preoccupation and Open Ends

Catt develops an obsession by the narrative, and I found myself captivated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards responsible documentation and reckless transgression clash in this segment. However, I would have preferred her to go further into her own obsessions here. The most interesting character is Brittney, who becomes vivid partially because of Catt's identification with her – another bright, bullied girl spiraling out of control in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus notes that Catt converses with Brittney in detention, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. The complete segment feels strangely incomplete, to the point that her narrative ends almost mid-par