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This latest work is populated with protagonists chasing after fresh starts, attempting to leave behind drugs or toxic relationships, only to see hope turn into conflict. Chris Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "new beginning", transforming it into intentionally weary through constant reiteration. Phrases such as "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They opted for a clean break" are scattered across the story. At the same time, the author herself is embarking on her individual reinvention, as this appears a different type of work – documentarian, truly literary. Yet it proves to be packed with the recurring issues and approaches as her previous works.

From Chance Novelist to Cult Classic

Chris Kraus began as an visual artist who became a writer almost accidentally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, made up of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, elevating personal female narrative from abjection into rebellion. She continued writing, but the following three compelling and abrasive novels did not possess the shock and immediacy that the epistolary style imparted to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her position as a nonconformist creator who had become a extensive real estate holder, so there was much discussion on housing investments. It is logical that she now wants to experiment with fresh narrative sources, turning outward to external narratives, at a moment when she claims that current political era renders personal narrative redundant.

Multiple Generations, One Unescapable Past

The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, spanning three generations – all unable to escape their backgrounds. The book includes the tale of a couple named Emma and Jasper, representations of the author's parents, transitioning from the Bronx to a pastoral setting. Then there is the story of Kraus herself, in the persona of a figure named Catt Greene, confronting the belated success of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her addict husband Paul. Finally the narrative of a homicide of one lost young man by another in a town largely deserted by forward-thinking policies only a brief drive from the protagonist's home in the Minnesota countryside.

From my perspective as a reader fond of polished prose of the kind Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the initial segment.

Being a reader who appreciates precise prose of the style that Kraus usually avoids, I was seduced by the storytelling approach of the opening segment. It exhibits a new quality of attentiveness that allows space for small details, like the pail that the young Catt dislodges from ice at the opening of the book, aided by her adored dad. "Look, an ice toy!" she declares; "a lovely toy", he responds, "the ambiguous meanings of language rolling around in their mouths like sweet treats". Kraus writes Emma's narrative with curiosity and intimacy. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not precisely her dream."

Letdown and Fragmentation

I was bound to become frustrated when I expected this different style could last out the book. Kraus says here that she resents the pleasure readers like me have taken from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to fragmentation, to the unpolished style she shares with her hero Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her previous novels reasserts itself in the central part. The protagonist is attempting to do up three dozen dilapidated units in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while shuttling between two different states, unsuccessful in assisting Paul manage his alcohol use. She feels helpless as Paul transitions between low-resource employment as an addiction therapist in a world driven by the rage and anxiety that underpins an electoral success. Multiple pages are devoted about the protagonist facing cancellation on social media, her professional designation altered from "author" to "real estate holder" on the online encyclopedia. The author still appears to care a little too much about this. In a moment she says that she's researching the homicide so that before exiting the region, "she may grasp something about an the nation that her online critics would fail to comprehend, would not even see".

The Murder Narrative

So then we come to the homicide in question – and the referenced day spent by the victim with the killer and his associates. Kraus utilizes compelling foundational content, and reconstructs step by step what transpired when Brandon came to meet 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 alongside her friends, loitering fixing his automobile and paying for snacks and drugs, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's partner a man named Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has repeatedly received inpatient care for aggressive outbursts.

Fascination and Incompletion

Catt develops an obsession by the narrative, and I was fascinated by the way that her twin drives towards ethical reporting and reckless transgression wrestle in this part. However, I would have preferred her to go further into her own obsessions here. The most interesting character is Brittney herself, who comes alive partially because of Catt seeing herself in her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman derailing in a struggling, neglected community. The author informs us that Catt speaks to Brittney in prison, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The whole section feels curiously unresolved, to the degree that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par