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The new book features individuals pursuing clean slates, trying to break free from substance abuse or abusive marriages, only to witness hope devolve into violence. Chris Kraus frequently uses the phrase "fresh start", transforming it into deliberately jaded through constant reiteration. Examples include "He aimed to start over" and "They opted for a clean break" appear throughout the text. And yet, Kraus herself seems to be making her own fresh start, because this seems a novel form of writing – documentarian, genuinely novelistic. Yet it proves to be filled with the recurring issues and aesthetics as past novels.

From Accidental Writer to Renowned Book

Kraus started out as an artist who transitioned to writing unintentionally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, structured as letters to an unreceptive lover, transforming intimate women's literature from abjection into defiance. She persisted as a writer, but the following three compelling and abrasive novels did not possess the power and directness that the correspondence format imparted to the voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her role as a renegade artist who had evolved into a extensive real estate holder, so there was considerable focus on housing investments. It is logical that she currently desires to experiment with new kinds of material, looking outwards to other people's stories, at a moment when she states that current political era renders personal narrative redundant.

Multiple Generations, One Unescapable Past

The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, covering multiple eras – each trapped by their histories. There is the narrative about Emma and Jasper, versions of Kraus's parents, moving from the Bronx to a pastoral setting. Additionally the narrative of the author, in the guise of Catt Greene, reckoning with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her addict husband Paul. And there is the account of a killing of one lost young man by another in a locality long abandoned by progressive politics only a brief drive from Catt's cottage in rural Minnesota.

As a reader fond of polished prose of the kind Kraus tends to eschew, I was seduced by the narrative style of the first section.

Being a reader who appreciates precise prose of the kind that Kraus herself often disregards, I was won over by the novelistic voice of the opening segment. It exhibits a novel degree of detail that allows space for small details, like the bucket that the protagonist as a child frees from the ice at the start of the story, assisted by her adored dad. "I found an ice toy!" she declares; "a lovely toy", he answers, "the elliptical meanings of words tumbling in their mouths like sweet treats". The author narrates Emma's story with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not entirely her own."

Frustration and Disruption

I was fated to feel let down when I expected this new voice could persist to the end. Kraus notes here that she is annoyed by the enjoyment readers like me have taken from I Love Dick; she's committed to fragmentation, to the unpolished style she echoes from her idol author Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her past books reasserts itself in the middle section. The protagonist is trying to renovate multiple decrepit residences in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while shuttling between the Midwest and the West Coast, unsuccessful in assisting her husband control his drinking. She experiences powerlessness as Paul cycles through underfunded jobs as an substance abuse counselor in a society propelled by the hostility and dread that underpins an electoral success. There are several pages about Catt being cancelled on a platform, her occupation changed from "author" to "property owner" on Wikipedia. She still gives the impression to be overly concerned about this. At one point she remarks that she's investigating the murder so that before departing the state, "she could potentially understand something about an the nation that her social media opponents would fail to comprehend, would not even see".

The Homicide Account

Thus we arrive to the homicide in question – and the eponymous day experienced by the victim with the murderer and his companions. Kraus utilizes excellent raw material, and details moment by moment what transpired when Brandon came to meet Brittney after connecting via an application where she offered adult photos. He sought a sexual encounter but appears congenially to have passed the day in the company of her associates, loitering getting his car mended and funding treats and narcotics, before being shot by Brittney's partner Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has frequently been hospitalised for aggressive outbursts.

Fascination and Incompletion

Catt develops an obsession by the account, and I was intrigued by the way that her twin drives towards accurate chronicling and reckless transgression wrestle in this part. However, I would have preferred her to delve deeper into her personal fixations here. The standout figure is Brittney, who becomes vivid partially because of Catt seeing herself in her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman derailing in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus notes that Catt speaks to Brittney in jail, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The complete segment feels curiously unresolved, to the degree that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par