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The new book is populated with protagonists seeking new beginnings, trying to break free from addictions or abusive marriages, only to find hope curdling into violence. The author repeatedly invokes the phrase "fresh start", transforming it into deliberately jaded through its repetitions. Sentences like "He could make a fresh start" and "They decided to make a fresh start" recur in the narrative. And yet, the author herself appears to be undertaking her personal new beginning, since this appears a novel form of writing – fact-based, truly literary. However it proves to be packed with the same dilemmas and approaches as earlier books.

From Accidental Writer to Iconic Work

Chris Kraus began as an visual artist who became a writer almost accidentally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, structured as missives to a distant beloved, elevating confessional female writing from abjection into assassination. She persisted as a writer, but the following three engaging and challenging novels did not possess the impact and rawness that the letter form infused into the voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her role as a renegade artist who had turned into a major property owner, so there was considerable focus on property transactions. It is logical that she currently desires to experiment with new kinds of material, turning outward to external narratives, at a period in which she claims that Trumpian politics turns intimate literature unnecessary.

Several Eras, One Unescapable Past

The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, spanning three generations – each trapped by their backgrounds. We encounter the story of characters Emma and Jasper, versions of the author's parents, transitioning from the Bronx to a pastoral setting. Then there is the account of Kraus, in the guise of protagonist Catt Greene, grappling with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse Paul. And there is the account of a killing of one lost young man by another in a locality long abandoned by progressive politics only 80 miles from Catt's rural residence in rural Minnesota.

From my perspective as a reader attracted to honed writing of the sort the author herself typically rejects, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the opening part.

As a reader who appreciates honed writing of the kind that Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the opening segment. There is a novel degree of detail that accommodates small details, like the container that the protagonist as a child pries out of frozen water at the beginning of the narrative, assisted by her cherished parent. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she declares; "a lovely toy", he responds, "the ambiguous meanings of language tumbling in their mouths like piece candy". The author narrates Emma's story with curiosity and intimacy. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not entirely her own."

Frustration and Disruption

I was fated to feel let down when I wished this new voice could continue through the novel. Kraus says here that she is annoyed by the pleasure those who appreciate polished prose have taken from I Love Dick; she's committed to disjunction, to the unpolished style she shares with her idol writer Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her previous novels reasserts itself in the middle section. Catt Greene is trying to renovate 36 run-down apartments in the city's most challenging districts while moving between two different states, unable to aid Paul manage his alcohol use. She experiences powerlessness as Paul moves between underfunded jobs as an recovery specialist in a environment driven by the hostility and dread that underpins Trump's victory. There are several pages about Catt's social media ostracism on Twitter, her listed profession modified from "writer" to "property owner" on Wikipedia. The author still appears to care a little too much about this. At one point she states that she's looking into the killing so that before departing the state, "she could potentially understand something about an America that her online critics would be unable to grasp, would overlook entirely".

The Killing Story

Thus we arrive to the actual killing – and the eponymous day passed by the deceased with the killer and his associates. Kraus utilizes excellent raw material, and reconstructs step by step what transpired when 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 alongside her friends, mooching around fixing his automobile and paying for snacks and drugs, before being murdered by her romantic interest Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has often been institutionalized for aggressive outbursts.

Obsession and Unfinished Business

Catt develops an obsession by the account, and I found myself captivated by the way that her twin drives towards responsible documentation and audacious rule-breaking wrestle in this part. Yet I wished her to delve deeper into her personal fixations here. The compelling persona is Brittney herself, who comes alive partly through the protagonist's connection to her – another bright, bullied girl spiraling out of control in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus tells us that Catt converses with Brittney in detention, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The whole section feels curiously unresolved, to the point that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par