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The new book features protagonists chasing after fresh starts, trying to break free from addictions or abusive marriages, only to find hope curdling into violence. Chris Kraus frequently uses the phrase "clean slate", rendering it intentionally weary through its repetitions. Phrases such as "He aimed to start over" and "They decided to make a fresh start" recur in the story. And yet, the author herself seems to be making her individual reinvention, as this seems a different type of work – observational, genuinely novelistic. Yet it reveals itself to be filled with the familiar conflicts and approaches as earlier books.

From Accidental Writer to Renowned Book

The writer started out as an creative who transitioned to writing unintentionally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, made up of letters to an unreceptive lover, elevating intimate women's literature from self-debasement into assassination. She persisted as a writer, but the next trio of compelling and abrasive novels did not possess the shock and immediacy that the correspondence format brought to the tone of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her role as a maverick maker who had evolved into a major property owner, so there was considerable focus on housing investments. It follows that she now wants to try out different types of content, turning outward to external narratives, at a time when she claims that Trumpian politics makes confessional writing redundant.

Multiple Generations, Shared Inescapable History

The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, spanning several time periods – all unable to escape their backgrounds. There is the tale of Emma and Jasper, versions of Kraus's parents, transitioning from the Bronx to rural Connecticut. There is the narrative of the author, in the character of a figure named Catt Greene, reckoning with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction her husband Paul. And there is the narrative of a homicide of one lost young man by another in a town mostly forsaken by forward-thinking policies only a brief drive from Catt's rural residence in the Minnesota countryside.

As a reader fond of refined literature of the type Kraus often avoids, I was seduced by the literary tone of the opening part.

As a reader who appreciates precise prose of the variety that the author often disregards, I was won over by the novelistic voice of the first section. It possesses a new quality of attentiveness that allows space for small details, like the bucket that the youthful Catt pries out of frozen water at the start of the story, helped by her adored dad. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she declares; "a lovely toy", he replies, "the ambiguous meanings of language circulating in their speech like piece candy". She tells Emma's story with interest and closeness. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not precisely her dream."

Letdown and Fragmentation

I was bound to become frustrated when I hoped this new voice could persist to the end. Kraus says here that she dislikes the enjoyment readers like me have taken from I Love Dick; she's committed to fragmentation, to the untidy aesthetics she has in common with her idol writer Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her past books comes back in the middle section. Catt is working on refurbishing three dozen dilapidated units in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while shuttling between Minnesota and LA, unable to aid Paul curb his addiction. She feels helpless as her spouse transitions between poorly supported positions as an addiction therapist in a society propelled by the anger and fear that underpins Trump's victory. A significant portion discusses about Catt's social media ostracism on Twitter, her occupation changed from "novelist" to "landlord" on the online encyclopedia. The author still appears to care a little too much about this. On one occasion she says that she's looking into the killing so that before leaving Minnesota, "she might be able to learn something about an America that her social media opponents would not understand, would not even perceive".

The Homicide Account

So then we come to the actual killing – and the titular day passed by the deceased with the killer and his friends. Kraus utilizes great source material, and details moment by moment what occurred as Brandon came to meet Brittney after meeting her on an app where she marketed explicit images. He was hoping for sex but seems amiably to have occupied the day alongside her friends, loitering having his vehicle repaired and covering the cost of food and substances, before being murdered by Brittney's partner Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has frequently been hospitalised for fits of anger.

Preoccupation and Open Ends

Catt develops an obsession by the story, and I found myself captivated by the way that her twin drives towards responsible documentation and audacious rule-breaking clash in this segment. Yet I wished her to go further into her individual preoccupations here. The compelling persona is Brittney, who gains dimension partly through Catt's identification with her – another bright, bullied girl spiraling out of control in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus tells us 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 Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par