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The new book centers on protagonists seeking fresh starts, attempting to leave behind substance abuse or abusive marriages, only to see hope turn into violence. The author repeatedly invokes the phrase "fresh start", transforming it into intentionally weary through its repetitions. Examples include "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They opted for a clean break" appear throughout the story. And yet, she appears to be undertaking her own fresh start, because this seems a different type of work – observational, truly literary. However it proves to be packed with the recurring issues and styles as her previous works.

From Unplanned Author to Cult Classic

Chris Kraus was originally an visual artist who transitioned to writing almost accidentally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, made up of letters to an unreceptive lover, transforming confessional female writing from abjection into assassination. She persisted as a writer, but the three subsequent compelling and abrasive novels missed the power and directness that the epistolary style imparted to the tone of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her identity as a renegade artist who had become a extensive real estate holder, so there was significant attention on property transactions. It follows that she currently desires to experiment with fresh narrative sources, turning outward to other people's stories, at a period in which she claims that Trumpian politics turns intimate literature unnecessary.

Three Generations, One Unescapable Past

The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, encompassing multiple eras – all unable to escape their pasts. The book includes the tale of Emma and Jasper, based on the author's parents, transitioning from the Bronx to rural Connecticut. There is the story of Kraus herself, in the character of protagonist Catt Greene, confronting the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her substance-dependent spouse her husband Paul. And there is the narrative of a homicide of one directionless individual by another in a town long abandoned by liberal ideals only 80 miles from Catt's rural residence in rural Minnesota.

From my perspective as a reader fond of refined literature of the kind the author herself tends to eschew, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the opening part.

As a reader drawn to precise prose of the kind that Kraus tends to eschew, I was seduced by the literary tone of the initial part. It possesses a new quality of attentiveness that makes room for small details, like the pail that the young Catt frees from the ice at the beginning of the narrative, assisted by her adored dad. "Look, an ice toy!" she says; "a lovely toy", he replies, "the elliptical meanings of words rolling around in their mouths like sweet treats". Kraus writes Emma's narrative with interest and closeness. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not entirely her own."

Disappointment and Disjunction

I was destined to be disappointed when I hoped this new voice could persist to the end. Kraus notes here that she dislikes the satisfaction those who appreciate polished prose have derived from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disruption, to the messy artistic approach she echoes from her inspiration writer Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her earlier works returns in the second segment. Catt is trying to renovate 36 run-down apartments in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while traveling between the Midwest and the West Coast, unsuccessful in assisting her husband manage his alcohol use. She is overwhelmed as Paul transitions between underfunded jobs as an addiction therapist in a society propelled by the rage and anxiety that drives a political win. A significant portion discusses about Catt being cancelled on Twitter, her professional designation altered from "novelist" to "real estate holder" on a reference site. The author still appears to invest excessive emotion about this. In a moment she says that she's investigating the murder so that before exiting the region, "she may grasp something about an the United States that her Twitter detractors would fail to comprehend, would overlook entirely".

The Murder Narrative

So then we come to the murder itself – and the titular day spent by the deceased with the killer and his companions. The author possesses great source material, and knows hour by hour what transpired when Brandon came to visit Brittney after meeting her on an app where she offered adult photos. He sought a sexual encounter but seems affably to have spent the day in the company of her associates, loitering getting his car mended and covering the cost of food and substances, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's partner Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has often been institutionalized for fits of anger.

Fascination and Incompletion

Catt gets obsessed by the story, and I found myself captivated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards ethical reporting and audacious rule-breaking wrestle in this part. But I'd have liked her to delve deeper into her personal fixations here. The compelling persona is the character Brittney, who gains dimension partly through Catt's identification with her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman going off the rails in a troubled, forgotten town. The author informs us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in detention, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The whole section feels oddly unfinished, to the degree that her narrative ends almost mid-par