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This latest work is populated with protagonists pursuing clean slates, attempting to leave behind drugs or abusive marriages, only to witness hope devolve into conflict. The author repeatedly invokes the phrase "new beginning", transforming it into deliberately jaded through constant reiteration. Examples include "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They chose to begin anew" appear throughout the narrative. And yet, Kraus herself seems to be making her personal new beginning, because this seems a different type of work – fact-based, authentically narrative. However it reveals itself to be laden with the recurring issues and styles as earlier books.

From Chance Novelist to Renowned Book

Chris Kraus began as an visual artist who entered the literary world unintentionally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, which was composed of missives to a distant beloved, transforming intimate women's literature from self-debasement into defiance. She continued writing, but the next trio of compelling and abrasive novels did not possess the shock and immediacy that the epistolary style brought to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her role as a maverick maker who had become a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was considerable focus on housing investments. It is logical that she now wants to explore fresh narrative sources, looking outwards to other people's stories, at a period in which she states that Trumpian politics turns intimate literature obsolete.

Three Generations, Shared Inescapable History

The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, encompassing several time periods – each trapped by their pasts. There is the story of characters Emma and Jasper, versions of her own mother and father, relocating from the urban environment to a pastoral setting. There is the account of Kraus, in the persona of a figure named Catt Greene, confronting the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction her husband Paul. The third thread involves the story of the murder of one directionless individual by another in a town mostly forsaken by forward-thinking policies only 80 miles from the protagonist's home in a remote part of Minnesota.

From my perspective as a reader attracted to refined literature of the type Kraus often avoids, I was seduced by the narrative style of the first section.

As someone who reads who appreciates precise prose of the style that the author tends to eschew, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the opening segment. There is a fresh level of observation that makes room for minutiae, like the container that the youthful Catt frees from the ice at the start of the story, aided by her beloved father. "Look, an ice toy!" she declares; "a great plaything", he answers, "the nuanced interpretations of terms tumbling in their mouths like sweet treats". She tells Emma's story with curiosity and intimacy. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not entirely her own."

Disappointment and Disjunction

I was bound to become frustrated when I wished this fresh tone could continue through the novel. Kraus notes here that she dislikes the satisfaction readers like me have derived from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disjunction, to the messy artistic approach she echoes from her idol Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her earlier works reasserts itself in the central part. Catt is attempting to do up 36 run-down apartments in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while moving between two different states, unable to aid Paul manage his alcohol use. She feels helpless as her spouse moves between underfunded jobs as an addiction therapist in a world propelled by the rage and anxiety that underpins a political win. There are several pages about the protagonist facing cancellation on a platform, her professional designation altered from "writer" to "real estate holder" on a reference site. She still gives the impression to be overly concerned about this. At one point she remarks that she's looking into the killing so that before departing the state, "she may grasp something about an America that her online critics would not understand, would overlook entirely".

The Murder Narrative

Then we reach to the homicide in question – and the titular day spent by the victim with the perpetrator and his associates. Kraus utilizes great source material, and details moment by moment what happened when Brandon came to see Brittney after meeting her on an app where she sold sex pictures. He sought a sexual encounter but seems amiably to have occupied the day with her companions, wandering about having his vehicle repaired and paying for snacks and drugs, before being murdered by Brittney's partner Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has frequently been hospitalised for violent rage.

Obsession and Unfinished Business

Catt develops an obsession by the account, and I found myself captivated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards accurate chronicling and reckless transgression tussle in this section. Yet I wished her to explore more thoroughly her personal fixations here. The most interesting character is Brittney, who comes alive partly through Catt's identification with her – another bright, bullied girl going off the rails in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus notes that Catt converses with Brittney in detention, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The complete segment feels oddly unfinished, to the extent that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par