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The new book features protagonists chasing after new beginnings, attempting to leave behind substance abuse or toxic relationships, only to find hope curdling into aggression. The author repeatedly invokes the phrase "fresh start", rendering it intentionally weary through constant reiteration. Phrases such as "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They decided to make a fresh start" are scattered across the story. And yet, she is embarking on her personal new beginning, as this presents as a different type of work – documentarian, genuinely novelistic. Yet it reveals itself to be packed with the familiar conflicts and approaches as earlier books.

From Accidental Writer to Iconic Work

Chris Kraus began as an visual artist who became a writer somewhat by chance with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, which was composed of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, transforming confessional female writing from self-debasement into defiance. She kept producing books, but the three subsequent fascinating and rebarbative novels lacked the shock and immediacy that the letter form infused into the narrative voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her role as a maverick maker who had turned into a extensive real estate holder, so there was much discussion on housing investments. It makes sense that she now wants to explore new kinds of material, turning outward to the experiences of others, at a time when she asserts that current political era renders personal narrative unnecessary.

Three Generations, One Unescapable Past

The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, spanning several time periods – each trapped by their backgrounds. The book includes the tale of Emma and Jasper, representations of Kraus's parents, relocating from the Bronx to rural Connecticut. Then there is the account of Kraus, in the persona of Catt Greene, confronting the late recognition of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her substance-dependent spouse her husband Paul. The third thread involves the narrative of a homicide of one directionless individual by another in a locality mostly forsaken by liberal ideals only a brief drive from Catt's cottage in the Minnesota countryside.

As a reader fond of honed writing of the type Kraus herself often avoids, I was captivated by the narrative style of the opening part.

As a reader who appreciates honed writing of the style that Kraus tends to eschew, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the first section. There is a novel degree of detail that allows space for trivial aspects, like the container that the youthful Catt dislodges from ice at the start of the story, assisted by her cherished parent. "I found an ice toy!" she says; "a great plaything", he answers, "the ambiguous meanings of language rolling around in their mouths like hard candy". Kraus writes Emma's narrative with interest and closeness. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not entirely her own."

Disappointment and Disjunction

I was fated to feel let down when I expected this different style could last out the book. Kraus says here that she dislikes the satisfaction readers like me have taken from I Love Dick; she's committed to disjunction, to the messy artistic approach she has in common with her inspiration Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her past books comes back in the second segment. Catt is attempting to do up 36 run-down apartments in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while moving between Minnesota and LA, failing to help Paul manage his alcohol use. She is overwhelmed as Paul cycles through low-resource employment as an substance abuse counselor in a environment driven by the anger and fear that drives Trump's victory. There are several pages about the protagonist facing cancellation on a platform, her occupation changed from "author" to "property owner" on the online encyclopedia. Kraus still seems to invest excessive emotion about this. In a moment she remarks that she's researching the homicide so that before exiting the region, "she might be able to learn something about an the nation that her online critics would not understand, would overlook entirely".

The Homicide Account

Thus we arrive to the actual killing – and the referenced day experienced by the deceased with the killer and his companions. The author possesses compelling foundational content, and knows hour by hour what occurred as the victim Brandon came to meet Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she offered adult photos. He sought a sexual encounter but seems amiably to have occupied the day in the company of her associates, mooching around having his vehicle repaired and covering the cost of food and substances, before being shot by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has frequently been hospitalised for aggressive outbursts.

Fascination and Incompletion

Catt gets obsessed by the story, and I found myself captivated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards accurate chronicling and daring boundary-pushing tussle in this section. Yet I wished her to go further into her own obsessions here. The compelling persona is Brittney herself, who becomes vivid partly through the protagonist's connection to her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual going off the rails in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus tells us that Catt speaks to Brittney in jail, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. The whole section feels curiously unresolved, to the degree that her narrative ends almost mid-par