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The new book features characters pursuing new beginnings, trying to break free from drugs or abusive marriages, only to find hope curdling into violence. Chris Kraus frequently uses the phrase "new beginning", making it intentionally weary through recurring use. Sentences like "He aimed to start over" and "They decided to make a fresh start" appear throughout the story. At the same time, she appears to be undertaking her individual reinvention, as this presents as a novel form of writing – observational, authentically narrative. Yet it proves to be filled with the same dilemmas and approaches as her previous works.

From Chance Novelist to Cult Classic

The writer started out as an visual artist who entered the literary world almost accidentally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, which was composed of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, converting intimate women's literature from abjection into assassination. She persisted as a writer, but the following three compelling and abrasive novels lacked the power and directness that the epistolary style brought to the tone of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her identity as a nonconformist creator who had become a major property owner, so there was considerable focus on housing investments. It is logical that she now wants to try out different types of content, looking outwards to the experiences of others, at a period in which she asserts that current political era renders personal narrative unnecessary.

Several Eras, Shared Inescapable History

The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, covering multiple eras – none able to break free from their histories. The book includes the tale of a couple named Emma and Jasper, representations of the author's parents, transitioning from the urban environment to the Connecticut countryside. Then there is the story of Kraus herself, in the character of protagonist Catt Greene, confronting the belated success of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse Paul. And there is the narrative of a homicide of one directionless individual by another in a town long abandoned by progressive politics only a brief drive from Catt's cottage in a remote part of Minnesota.

As a reader drawn to refined literature of the sort Kraus herself typically rejects, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the first section.

As someone who reads drawn to honed writing of the variety that the author usually avoids, I was captivated by the storytelling approach of the initial part. It possesses a fresh level of observation that accommodates minutiae, like the container that the young Catt frees from the ice at the start of the story, assisted by her cherished parent. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she says; "a great plaything", he responds, "the elliptical meanings of words rolling around in their mouths like hard candy". Kraus writes Emma's narrative with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not hers, exactly."

Disappointment and Disjunction

I was bound to become frustrated when I expected this fresh tone could last out the book. Kraus notes here that she is annoyed by the satisfaction those who appreciate polished prose have derived from I Love Dick; she's committed to fragmentation, to the messy artistic approach she echoes from her idol Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her past books returns in the second segment. Catt Greene is working on refurbishing 36 run-down apartments in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while traveling between the Midwest and the West Coast, unable to aid her husband control his drinking. She feels helpless as her spouse moves between low-resource employment as an substance abuse counselor in a world driven by the rage and anxiety that drives a political win. Multiple pages are devoted about the protagonist facing cancellation on a platform, her listed profession modified from "author" to "landlord" on a reference site. The author still appears to care a little too much about this. On one occasion she says that she's researching the homicide so that before departing the state, "she might be able to learn something about an America that her online critics would fail to comprehend, would overlook entirely".

The Killing Story

So then we come to the actual killing – and the referenced day experienced by the victim with the perpetrator and his associates. Kraus has excellent raw material, and knows hour by hour what occurred as Brandon came to meet Brittney after meeting her on an app where she marketed explicit images. He anticipated intimacy but seems affably to have spent the day in the company of her associates, mooching around having his vehicle repaired and paying for snacks and drugs, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's partner Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has repeatedly received inpatient care for aggressive outbursts.

Fascination and Incompletion

The protagonist becomes fixated by the account, and I was intrigued by the way that her twin drives towards ethical reporting and audacious rule-breaking clash in this segment. However, I would have preferred her to go further into her own obsessions here. The compelling persona is the character Brittney, who gains dimension partially because of Catt's identification with her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman spiraling out of control in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus tells us that Catt speaks to Brittney in jail, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The complete segment feels oddly unfinished, to the extent that her narrative ends almost mid-par