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The new book is populated with characters pursuing clean slates, trying to break free from drugs or abusive marriages, only to witness hope devolve into conflict. Kraus frequently uses the phrase "new beginning", making it deliberately jaded through its repetitions. Phrases such as "He could make a fresh start" and "They decided to make a fresh start" appear throughout the narrative. At the same time, the author herself seems to be making her personal new beginning, as this seems a novel form of writing – fact-based, authentically narrative. However it proves to be filled with the same dilemmas and styles as her previous works.

From Accidental Writer to Iconic Work

Chris Kraus started out as an creative who became a writer somewhat by chance with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, which was composed of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, converting confessional female writing from humiliation into defiance. She kept producing books, but the three subsequent engaging and challenging novels lacked the impact and rawness that the epistolary style imparted to the tone of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her position as a renegade artist who had become a major property owner, so there was considerable focus on property transactions. It follows that she presently aims to experiment with different types of content, directing her gaze to external narratives, at a period in which she claims that contemporary political climate makes confessional writing redundant.

Several Eras, One Unescapable Past

The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, spanning three generations – all unable to escape their histories. There is the narrative about Emma and Jasper, representations of the author's parents, transitioning from the New York borough to a pastoral setting. Then there is the account of Kraus, in the guise of protagonist Catt Greene, reckoning with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse her husband Paul. Finally the narrative of a homicide of one troubled youth by another in a town largely deserted by liberal ideals only 80 miles from the protagonist's home in rural Minnesota.

For this reader fond of refined literature of the sort Kraus often avoids, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the initial segment.

Being a reader drawn to precise prose of the kind that the author usually avoids, I was seduced by the storytelling approach of the opening segment. There is a novel degree of detail that accommodates minutiae, like the container that the young Catt frees from the ice at the start of the story, assisted by her adored dad. "I found an ice toy!" she says; "a lovely toy", he responds, "the nuanced interpretations of terms circulating in their speech like sweet treats". She tells Emma's story with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not hers, exactly."

Letdown and Fragmentation

I was bound to become frustrated when I wished this new voice could last out the book. The author states here that she is annoyed by the enjoyment those who appreciate polished prose have gotten from I Love Dick; she's devoted to fragmentation, to the messy artistic approach she has in common with her hero writer Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her earlier works comes back in the second segment. The protagonist is working on refurbishing 36 run-down apartments in the city's most challenging districts while traveling between two different states, unable to aid her husband manage his alcohol use. She is overwhelmed as Paul transitions between low-resource employment as an substance abuse counselor in a environment fueled by the anger and fear that powers an electoral success. There are several pages about Catt's social media ostracism on social media, her occupation changed from "novelist" to "property owner" on the online encyclopedia. Kraus still seems to be overly concerned about this. On one occasion 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 online critics would be unable to grasp, would overlook entirely".

The Killing Story

So then we come to the murder itself – and the eponymous day spent by the murdered individual with the perpetrator and his associates. Kraus has excellent raw material, and details moment by moment what transpired when the victim Brandon came to see Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she marketed explicit images. He was hoping for sex but seems amiably to have occupied the day in the company of her associates, mooching around having his vehicle repaired and paying for snacks and drugs, before being murdered by Brittney's partner a man named Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has repeatedly received inpatient care for fits of anger.

Obsession and Unfinished Business

Catt develops an obsession by the story, and I found myself captivated by the way that her twin drives towards ethical reporting and reckless transgression tussle in this section. Yet I wished her to explore more thoroughly her personal fixations here. The standout figure is the character Brittney, who becomes vivid in part due to Catt seeing herself in her – another bright, bullied girl derailing in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus notes that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in prison, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. This entire part feels curiously unresolved, to the degree that her narrative ends almost mid-par