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This latest work is populated with protagonists pursuing new beginnings, trying to break free from drugs or toxic relationships, only to find hope curdling into conflict. Chris Kraus frequently uses the phrase "clean slate", making it willfully cynical through constant reiteration. Examples include "He could make a fresh start" and "They decided to make a fresh start" appear throughout the story. At the same time, Kraus herself appears to be undertaking her personal new beginning, because this presents as a new kind of book – documentarian, truly literary. Yet it reveals itself to be packed with the same dilemmas and styles as earlier books.

From Chance Novelist to Renowned Book

Chris Kraus started out as an visual artist who entered the literary world almost accidentally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, made up of letters to an unreceptive lover, transforming personal female narrative from humiliation into assassination. She continued writing, but the three subsequent engaging and challenging novels lacked the impact and rawness that the epistolary style brought to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her role as a renegade artist who had evolved into a major property owner, so there was considerable focus on housing investments. It is logical that she presently aims to explore different types of content, turning outward to external narratives, at a time when she states that contemporary political climate makes confessional writing redundant.

Multiple Generations, Shared Inescapable History

The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, spanning three generations – all unable to escape their backgrounds. We encounter the story of characters Emma and Jasper, versions of the author's parents, relocating from the urban environment to a pastoral setting. Then there is the story of Kraus herself, in the character of Catt Greene, confronting the belated success of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her addict husband Paul. The third thread involves the story of the murder of one troubled youth by another in a town largely deserted by liberal ideals only a short distance from the protagonist's home in rural Minnesota.

As a reader drawn to refined literature of the sort Kraus tends to eschew, I was enchanted by the novelistic voice of the first section.

As someone who reads who appreciates crafted language of the kind that the author usually avoids, I was won over by the storytelling approach of the opening segment. It possesses a fresh level of observation that allows space for small details, like the pail that the youthful Catt pries out of frozen water at the beginning of the narrative, assisted by her adored dad. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she says; "a nice toy", he responds, "the elliptical meanings of words rolling around in their mouths like sweet treats". Kraus writes the tale of Emma with interest and closeness. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not hers, exactly."

Disappointment and Disjunction

I was bound to become frustrated when I expected this different style could last out the book. Kraus notes here that she is annoyed by the enjoyment those who appreciate polished prose have gotten from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disruption, to the unpolished style she has in common with her inspiration author Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her previous novels comes back in the middle section. Catt Greene is trying to renovate three dozen dilapidated units in the city's most challenging districts while traveling between two different states, failing to help her husband manage his alcohol use. She feels helpless as Paul transitions between poorly supported positions as an addiction therapist in a society propelled by the hostility and dread that powers Trump's victory. There are several pages about the protagonist facing cancellation on Twitter, her occupation changed from "writer" to "property owner" on a reference site. Kraus still seems to care a little too much about this. In a moment she says that she's researching the homicide so that before departing the state, "she could potentially understand something about an America that her social media opponents would not understand, would not even see".

The Homicide Account

Then we reach to the actual killing – and the titular day spent by the murdered individual with the killer and his companions. 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 anticipated intimacy but seems affably to have spent the day in the company of her associates, mooching around having his vehicle repaired 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 repeatedly received inpatient care for aggressive outbursts.

Preoccupation and Open Ends

Catt develops an obsession by the narrative, and I was fascinated by the way that her twin drives towards accurate chronicling and audacious rule-breaking tussle in this section. However, I would have preferred her to explore more thoroughly her individual preoccupations here. The standout figure is the character Brittney, who becomes vivid partly through Catt seeing herself in her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman derailing in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus notes that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in detention, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. This entire part feels strangely incomplete, to the degree that her narrative ends almost mid-par