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The new book centers on individuals seeking fresh starts, struggling to escape addictions or abusive marriages, only to witness hope devolve into aggression. Chris Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "fresh start", rendering it willfully cynical through recurring use. Sentences like "He could make a fresh start" and "They decided to make a fresh start" appear throughout the text. Meanwhile, Kraus herself is embarking on her own fresh start, because this appears a new kind of book – documentarian, genuinely novelistic. Yet it turns out to be packed with the same dilemmas and aesthetics as past novels.

From Unplanned Author to Renowned Book

The writer started out as an artist who became a writer unintentionally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, made up of letters to an unreceptive lover, transforming personal female narrative from self-debasement into assassination. She kept producing books, but the following three compelling and abrasive novels missed the impact and rawness that the epistolary style brought to the tone of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her position as a nonconformist creator who had turned into a major property owner, so there was considerable focus on real estate deals. It follows that she currently desires to explore new kinds of material, looking outwards to external narratives, at a moment when she asserts that Trumpian politics makes confessional writing redundant.

Several Eras, One Unescapable Past

The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, encompassing three generations – each trapped by their backgrounds. There is the narrative about characters Emma and Jasper, representations of Kraus's parents, transitioning from the urban environment to rural Connecticut. Then there is the narrative of the author, in the persona of Catt Greene, reckoning with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her substance-dependent spouse Paul. Finally the story of the murder of one directionless individual by another in a town mostly forsaken by forward-thinking policies only a brief drive from Catt's cottage in a remote part of Minnesota.

As a reader fond of honed writing of the sort Kraus often avoids, I was captivated by the literary tone of the initial segment.

As a reader who appreciates honed writing of the style that Kraus herself usually avoids, I was seduced by the storytelling approach of the initial part. There is a fresh level of observation that accommodates small details, like the pail that the youthful Catt frees from the ice at the start of the story, helped by her cherished parent. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she says; "a lovely toy", he answers, "the elliptical meanings of words circulating in their speech like piece candy". The author narrates Emma's story with interest and closeness. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not precisely her dream."

Disappointment and Disjunction

I was bound to become frustrated when I wished this different style could persist to the end. Kraus notes here that she dislikes the satisfaction readers like me have derived from I Love Dick; she's committed to fragmentation, to the messy artistic approach she has in common with her idol Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her past books returns in the central part. The protagonist is trying to renovate three dozen dilapidated units in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while traveling between two different states, unsuccessful in assisting her husband control his drinking. She feels helpless as Paul cycles through underfunded jobs as an substance abuse counselor in a environment propelled by the rage and anxiety that powers Trump's victory. There are several pages about Catt being cancelled on social media, her professional designation altered from "writer" to "real estate holder" on a reference site. Kraus still seems to invest excessive emotion about this. In a moment she states that she's researching the homicide so that before leaving Minnesota, "she could potentially understand something about an America that her social media opponents would not understand, would not even perceive".

The Murder Narrative

Thus we arrive to the murder itself – and the titular day experienced by the deceased with the killer and his friends. Kraus has compelling foundational content, and details moment by moment what transpired when Brandon came to meet Brittney after meeting her on an app where she sold sex pictures. He sought a sexual encounter but seems affably to have spent the day alongside her friends, wandering about having his vehicle repaired and funding treats and narcotics, before being shot by her romantic interest a man named Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has repeatedly received inpatient care for aggressive outbursts.

Preoccupation and Open Ends

The protagonist becomes fixated by the narrative, and I found myself captivated by the way that her twin drives towards responsible documentation and reckless transgression tussle in this section. Yet I wished her to delve deeper into her individual preoccupations here. The compelling persona is Brittney herself, who gains dimension in part due to Catt seeing herself in her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual going off the rails in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus notes that Catt speaks to Brittney in jail, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The complete segment feels strangely incomplete, to the degree that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par