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This latest work is populated with individuals seeking clean slates, attempting to leave behind drugs or abusive marriages, only to find hope curdling into aggression. Chris Kraus frequently uses the phrase "fresh start", transforming it into intentionally weary through recurring use. Sentences like "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They opted for a clean break" recur in the text. At the same time, she is embarking on her individual reinvention, since this appears a new kind of book – observational, genuinely novelistic. However it proves to be filled with the same dilemmas and styles as earlier books.

From Accidental Writer to Cult Classic

The writer was originally an visual artist who transitioned to writing somewhat by chance with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, made up of letters to an unreceptive lover, converting confessional female writing from self-debasement into defiance. She persisted as a writer, but the following three compelling and abrasive novels lacked the impact and rawness that the letter form imparted to the voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her identity as a maverick maker who had become a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was significant attention on property transactions. It is logical that she currently desires to try out fresh narrative sources, directing her gaze to external narratives, at a moment when she states that contemporary political climate makes confessional writing redundant.

Several Eras, Shared Inescapable History

The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, covering three generations – all unable to escape their histories. We encounter the tale of a couple named Emma and Jasper, representations 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 belated success of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her addict husband Paul. Finally the account of a killing of one directionless individual by another in a town long abandoned by liberal ideals only a short distance from Catt's rural residence in rural Minnesota.

For this reader attracted to polished prose of the kind Kraus typically rejects, I was captivated by the narrative style of the opening part.

Being a reader who favors crafted language of the style that the author often disregards, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the first section. It possesses a fresh level of observation that makes room for small details, like the container that the protagonist as a child pries out of frozen water at the start of the story, helped by her cherished parent. "I found an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a great plaything", he responds, "the nuanced interpretations of terms tumbling in their mouths like hard candy". The author narrates Emma's story with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not precisely her dream."

Letdown and Fragmentation

I was destined to be disappointed when I expected this different style could continue through the novel. The author states here that she is annoyed by the pleasure readers like me have taken from I Love Dick; she's committed to disruption, to the untidy aesthetics she shares with her inspiration Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her earlier works returns in the second segment. Catt is trying to renovate three dozen dilapidated units in the city's most challenging districts while moving between two different states, unsuccessful in assisting Paul curb his addiction. She feels helpless as Paul cycles through low-resource employment as an addiction therapist in a world propelled by the anger and fear that drives a political win. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt being cancelled on Twitter, her professional designation altered from "writer" to "property owner" on a reference site. The author still appears to be overly concerned about this. In a moment she says that she's looking into the killing so that before exiting the region, "she might be able to learn something about an the United States that her Twitter detractors would be unable to grasp, would not even perceive".

The Homicide Account

So then we come to the homicide in question – and the eponymous day passed by the victim with the murderer and his associates. The author possesses great source material, and knows hour by hour what occurred as Brandon came to meet 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 with her companions, loitering fixing his automobile and covering the cost of food and substances, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's partner a man named Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has often been institutionalized for fits of anger.

Preoccupation and Open Ends

Catt gets obsessed by the narrative, and I found myself captivated by the way that her twin drives towards responsible documentation and daring boundary-pushing wrestle in this part. However, I would have preferred her to delve deeper into her own obsessions here. The most interesting character is Brittney herself, who comes alive partially because of the protagonist's connection to her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman going off the rails in a struggling, neglected community. The author informs us that Catt speaks to Brittney in detention, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. The whole section feels oddly unfinished, to the extent that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par