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The new book features individuals pursuing new beginnings, trying to break free from addictions or abusive marriages, only to find hope curdling into conflict. The author frequently uses the phrase "fresh start", transforming it into intentionally weary through its repetitions. Phrases such as "He aimed to start over" and "They decided to make a fresh start" recur in the narrative. And yet, she is embarking on her individual reinvention, since this appears a different type of work – documentarian, truly literary. But then it turns out to be packed with the same dilemmas and styles as past novels.

From Accidental Writer to Renowned Book

Chris Kraus was originally an artist who became a writer unintentionally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, structured as letters to an unreceptive lover, converting intimate women's literature from humiliation into rebellion. She persisted as a writer, but the next trio of engaging and challenging novels did not possess the shock and immediacy that the correspondence format brought to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her position as a maverick maker who had turned into a major property owner, so there was considerable focus on property transactions. It follows that she currently desires to experiment with new kinds of material, turning outward to external narratives, at a time when she states that current political era makes confessional writing redundant.

Multiple Generations, Shared Inescapable History

The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, covering three generations – all unable to escape their backgrounds. There is the story of a couple named Emma and Jasper, representations of Kraus's parents, transitioning from the urban environment to rural Connecticut. Then there is the account of Kraus, in the persona of Catt Greene, reckoning with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her addict husband her husband Paul. And there is the narrative of a homicide of one troubled youth by another in a locality long abandoned by progressive politics only a short distance from Catt's cottage in rural Minnesota.

From my perspective as a reader fond of honed writing of the kind the author herself typically rejects, I was enchanted by the narrative style of the opening part.

As someone who reads who favors honed writing of the kind that Kraus usually avoids, I was won over by the novelistic voice of the opening segment. There is a novel degree of detail that makes room for minutiae, like the bucket that the young Catt dislodges from ice at the start of the story, aided by her cherished parent. "I found an ice toy!" she says; "a nice toy", he responds, "the ambiguous meanings of language tumbling in their mouths like sweet treats". She tells Emma's story with interest and closeness. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not precisely her dream."

Disappointment and Disjunction

I was destined to be disappointed when I hoped this different style could persist to the end. The author states here that she resents the enjoyment audiences such as myself have gotten from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disjunction, to the messy artistic approach she echoes from her inspiration Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her previous novels comes back in the central part. Catt Greene is attempting to do up multiple decrepit residences in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while moving between the Midwest and the West Coast, unable to aid Paul control his drinking. She experiences powerlessness as Paul transitions between low-resource employment as an substance abuse counselor in a world propelled by the hostility and dread that underpins a political win. There are several pages about Catt's social media ostracism on Twitter, her listed profession modified from "author" to "landlord" on Wikipedia. The author still appears to be overly concerned about this. On one occasion she states that she's looking into the killing so that before leaving Minnesota, "she may grasp something about an America that her Twitter detractors would be unable to grasp, would overlook entirely".

The Murder Narrative

So then we come to the murder itself – and the eponymous day passed by the victim with the murderer and his associates. The author possesses excellent raw material, and knows hour by hour what happened when a man named Brandon came to visit Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she sold sex pictures. He sought a sexual encounter but appears congenially to have passed the day in the company of her associates, mooching around fixing his automobile and paying for snacks and drugs, before being murdered by her romantic interest a man named Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has often been institutionalized for aggressive outbursts.

Fascination and Incompletion

Catt gets obsessed by the narrative, and I was intrigued by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards ethical reporting and audacious rule-breaking tussle in this section. But I'd have liked her to go further into her individual preoccupations here. The standout figure is Brittney, who gains dimension in part due to Catt's identification with her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman going off the rails in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus tells us that Catt converses with Brittney in detention, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. The whole section feels curiously unresolved, to the point that her narrative ends almost mid-par