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The new book features individuals chasing after fresh starts, struggling to escape addictions or harmful partnerships, only to see hope turn into aggression. Chris Kraus frequently uses the phrase "new beginning", making it willfully cynical through its repetitions. Phrases such as "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They decided to make a fresh start" appear throughout the text. And yet, the author herself seems to be making her own fresh start, since this appears a new kind of book – documentarian, authentically narrative. But then it turns out to be packed with the same dilemmas and approaches as her previous works.

From Accidental Writer to Iconic Work

Kraus was originally an creative who entered the literary world somewhat by chance with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, made up of letters to an unreceptive lover, converting intimate women's literature from abjection into assassination. She persisted as a writer, but the following three compelling and abrasive novels lacked the impact and rawness that the letter form infused into the tone of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her role as a maverick maker who had evolved into a major property owner, so there was considerable focus on property transactions. It follows that she now wants to experiment with fresh narrative sources, directing her gaze to other people's stories, at a moment when she claims that Trumpian politics makes confessional writing obsolete.

Several Eras, Shared Inescapable History

The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, encompassing several time periods – all unable to escape their backgrounds. There is the story of Emma and Jasper, versions of the author's parents, relocating from the New York borough to the Connecticut countryside. There is the account of Kraus, in the guise of a figure named Catt Greene, confronting the late recognition of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse Paul. And there is the account of a killing of one troubled youth by another in a locality largely deserted by progressive politics only a short distance from Catt's cottage in a remote part of Minnesota.

From my perspective as a reader attracted to refined literature of the sort the author herself often avoids, I was seduced by the narrative style of the opening part.

As someone who reads who favors crafted language of the style that the author often disregards, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the initial part. There is a fresh level of observation that allows space for trivial aspects, like the bucket that the youthful Catt frees from the ice at the start of the story, helped by her cherished parent. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she says; "a great plaything", he replies, "the elliptical meanings of words rolling around in their mouths like hard candy". The author narrates the tale of Emma with interest and closeness. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not hers, exactly."

Letdown and Fragmentation

I was bound to become frustrated when I hoped this new voice could continue through the novel. Kraus says here that she dislikes the enjoyment audiences such as myself have taken from I Love Dick; she's committed to disjunction, to the unpolished style she echoes from her hero Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her previous novels returns in the middle section. Catt is working on refurbishing 36 run-down apartments in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while shuttling between two different states, failing to help her husband curb his addiction. She experiences powerlessness as Paul moves between poorly supported positions as an addiction therapist in a society driven by the anger and fear that underpins Trump's victory. There are several pages about Catt's social media ostracism on Twitter, her professional designation altered from "author" to "property owner" on the online encyclopedia. The author still appears to invest excessive emotion about this. At one point she remarks that she's looking into the killing so that before leaving Minnesota, "she might be able to learn something about an the United States that her social media opponents would not understand, would not even perceive".

The Homicide Account

Thus we arrive to the actual killing – and the titular day spent by the deceased with the killer and his friends. Kraus utilizes compelling foundational content, and details moment by moment what occurred as a man named Brandon came to meet Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she marketed explicit images. He sought a sexual encounter but seems amiably to have occupied the day with her companions, mooching around getting his car mended and funding treats and narcotics, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has repeatedly received inpatient care for fits of anger.

Obsession and Unfinished Business

The protagonist becomes fixated by the narrative, and I was intrigued by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards ethical reporting and reckless transgression clash in this segment. However, I would have preferred her to delve deeper into her own obsessions here. The standout figure is Brittney herself, who becomes vivid in part due to Catt's identification with her – another bright, bullied girl spiraling out of control in a difficult, overlooked locality. The author informs us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in prison, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The whole section feels curiously unresolved, to the point that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par