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This latest work features protagonists seeking new beginnings, trying to break free from addictions or abusive marriages, only to find hope curdling into violence. The author often employs the phrase "fresh start", making it willfully cynical through recurring use. Sentences like "He could make a fresh start" and "They chose to begin anew" are scattered across the story. And yet, the author herself is embarking on her individual reinvention, because this appears a different type of work – observational, authentically narrative. But then it proves to be laden with the same dilemmas and approaches as earlier books.

From Chance Novelist to Renowned Book

Chris Kraus was originally an visual artist who transitioned to writing almost accidentally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, which was composed of missives to a distant beloved, converting intimate women's literature from abjection into defiance. She persisted as a writer, but the following three engaging and challenging novels lacked the power and directness that the letter form imparted to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her position as a renegade artist who had become a major property owner, so there was significant attention on real estate deals. It follows that she presently aims to experiment with different types of content, looking outwards to the experiences of others, at a moment when she states that Trumpian politics makes confessional writing obsolete.

Several Eras, Collective Unavoidable Background

The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, encompassing several time periods – all unable to escape their pasts. We encounter the tale of characters Emma and Jasper, representations of the author's parents, relocating from the urban environment to a pastoral setting. Additionally the account of Kraus, in the character of protagonist Catt Greene, reckoning with the belated success of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction Paul. And there is the narrative of a homicide of one directionless individual by another in a locality long abandoned by progressive politics only a brief drive from the protagonist's home in rural Minnesota.

For this reader attracted to honed writing of the sort Kraus tends to eschew, I was captivated by the literary tone of the first section.

Being a reader who appreciates crafted language of the variety that Kraus usually avoids, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the first section. There is a fresh level of observation that accommodates trivial aspects, like the container that the youthful Catt dislodges from ice at the opening of the book, helped by her adored dad. "Look, an ice toy!" she declares; "a nice toy", he replies, "the ambiguous meanings of language tumbling in their mouths like sweet treats". The author narrates Emma's story with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not hers, exactly."

Letdown and Fragmentation

I was bound to become frustrated when I expected this new voice could last out the book. The author states here that she resents the enjoyment audiences such as myself have gotten from I Love Dick; she's committed to disruption, to the unpolished style she echoes from her hero Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her earlier works returns in the middle section. The protagonist is working on refurbishing three dozen dilapidated units in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while shuttling between the Midwest and the West Coast, unsuccessful in assisting her husband curb his addiction. She is overwhelmed as her spouse moves between low-resource employment as an addiction therapist in a environment fueled by the anger and fear that underpins Trump's victory. Multiple pages are devoted about the protagonist facing cancellation on a platform, her professional designation altered from "novelist" to "landlord" on the online encyclopedia. She still gives the impression to invest excessive emotion about this. At one point she states that she's investigating the murder so that before exiting the region, "she could potentially understand something about an America that her social media opponents would not understand, would overlook entirely".

The Murder Narrative

Thus we arrive to the actual killing – and the eponymous day spent by the murdered individual with the perpetrator and his companions. Kraus utilizes compelling foundational content, and knows hour by hour what happened when a man named Brandon came to meet Brittney after connecting via an application where she marketed explicit images. He sought a sexual encounter but seems amiably to have occupied the day in the company of her associates, mooching around getting his car mended and paying for snacks and drugs, before being killed by gunfire by her romantic interest Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has frequently been hospitalised for aggressive outbursts.

Obsession and Unfinished Business

The protagonist becomes fixated by the story, and I was intrigued by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards ethical reporting and reckless transgression clash in this segment. Yet I wished her to go further into her own obsessions here. The standout figure is the character Brittney, who gains dimension partly through Catt's identification with her – another bright, bullied girl spiraling out of control in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus notes that Catt converses with Brittney in prison, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The complete segment feels curiously unresolved, to the point that her narrative ends almost mid-par