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The new book centers on protagonists seeking clean slates, struggling to escape addictions or abusive marriages, only to find hope curdling into conflict. Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "new beginning", making it intentionally weary through its repetitions. Phrases such as "He could make a fresh start" and "They chose to begin anew" are scattered across the text. And yet, she is embarking on her personal new beginning, since this seems a different type of work – fact-based, truly literary. But then it reveals itself to be packed with the familiar conflicts and aesthetics as past novels.

From Chance Novelist to Cult Classic

Chris Kraus started out as an creative who transitioned to writing unintentionally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, made up of letters to an unreceptive lover, converting personal female narrative from abjection into assassination. She kept producing books, but the three subsequent compelling and abrasive novels missed the impact and rawness that the letter form infused into the voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her identity as a maverick maker who had become a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was much discussion on housing investments. It makes sense that she now wants to explore new kinds of material, looking outwards to external narratives, at a period in which she claims 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, encompassing multiple eras – each trapped by their backgrounds. We encounter the narrative about Emma and Jasper, based on her own mother and father, transitioning from the Bronx to a pastoral setting. Then there is the story of Kraus herself, in the persona of Catt Greene, confronting the belated success of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction a man named Paul. Finally the narrative of a homicide of one troubled youth by another in a locality long abandoned by forward-thinking policies only a brief drive from Catt's cottage in a remote part of Minnesota.

For this reader attracted to honed writing of the type the author herself often avoids, I was captivated by the literary tone of the initial segment.

Being a reader who appreciates crafted language of the style that Kraus often disregards, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the first section. It exhibits a new quality of attentiveness that accommodates small details, like the container that the youthful Catt pries out of frozen water at the beginning of the narrative, aided by her adored dad. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she declares; "a nice toy", he answers, "the ambiguous meanings of language rolling around in their mouths like hard candy". The author narrates Emma's narrative with curiosity and intimacy. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not entirely her own."

Letdown and Fragmentation

I was fated to feel let down when I wished this fresh tone could persist to the end. Kraus says here that she is annoyed by the satisfaction those who appreciate polished prose have taken from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disjunction, to the untidy aesthetics she shares with her idol Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her past books returns in the second segment. Catt is working on refurbishing three dozen dilapidated units in the city's most challenging districts while moving between Minnesota and LA, failing to help Paul curb his addiction. She feels helpless as Paul cycles through poorly supported positions as an addiction therapist in a environment driven by the rage and anxiety that drives Trump's victory. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt's social media ostracism on social media, her listed profession modified from "author" to "property owner" on a reference site. Kraus still seems to be overly concerned about this. At one point she remarks that she's investigating the murder so that before departing the state, "she could potentially understand something about an America that her social media opponents would fail to comprehend, would overlook entirely".

The Homicide Account

Then we reach to the homicide in question – and the referenced day passed by the victim with the killer and his friends. Kraus utilizes excellent raw material, and knows hour by hour what happened when the victim Brandon came to see Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she offered adult photos. He anticipated intimacy but seems affably to have spent the day with her companions, wandering about having his vehicle repaired and paying for snacks and drugs, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's partner Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has often been institutionalized for violent rage.

Fascination and Incompletion

Catt gets obsessed by the narrative, and I was intrigued by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards ethical reporting and audacious rule-breaking tussle in this section. However, I would have preferred her to delve deeper into her individual preoccupations here. The compelling persona is Brittney, who gains dimension partially because of Catt's identification with her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman going off the rails in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus tells us that Catt speaks to Brittney in detention, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. This entire part feels curiously unresolved, to the degree that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par