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This latest work centers on characters chasing after clean slates, struggling to escape drugs or toxic relationships, only to find hope curdling into aggression. Kraus frequently uses the phrase "fresh start", rendering it deliberately jaded through recurring use. Phrases such as "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They decided to make a fresh start" recur in the story. At the same time, Kraus herself is embarking on her individual reinvention, as this appears a new kind of book – documentarian, truly literary. Yet it reveals itself to be filled with the familiar conflicts and approaches as past novels.

From Accidental Writer to Renowned Book

Chris Kraus started out as an artist who entered the literary world almost accidentally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, which was composed of missives to a distant beloved, converting intimate women's literature from self-debasement into defiance. She persisted as a writer, but the following three fascinating and rebarbative novels did not possess the impact and rawness that the letter form imparted to the tone of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her role as a renegade artist who had become a major property owner, so there was considerable focus on property transactions. It follows that she presently aims to try out different types of content, directing her gaze to the experiences of others, at a period in which she asserts that Trumpian politics makes confessional writing redundant.

Several Eras, One Unescapable Past

The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, encompassing three generations – all unable to escape their histories. We encounter the story of a couple named Emma and Jasper, versions of the author's parents, transitioning from the Bronx to rural Connecticut. Then there is the narrative of the author, in the character of protagonist Catt Greene, reckoning with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her substance-dependent spouse a man named Paul. The third thread involves the story of the murder of one troubled youth by another in a locality largely deserted by progressive politics only 80 miles from the protagonist's home in the Minnesota countryside.

For this reader attracted to honed writing of the sort Kraus herself often avoids, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the initial segment.

As someone who reads who favors precise prose of the kind that Kraus herself often disregards, I was seduced by the storytelling approach of the initial part. It exhibits a fresh level of observation that allows space for minutiae, like the container that the youthful Catt frees from the ice at the opening of the book, assisted by her beloved father. "Look, an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a nice toy", he responds, "the elliptical meanings of words rolling around in their mouths like hard candy". She tells the tale of Emma with interest and closeness. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not entirely her own."

Disappointment and Disjunction

I was destined to be disappointed when I expected this fresh tone could continue through the novel. Kraus notes here that she resents the enjoyment those who appreciate polished prose have gotten from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disruption, to the untidy aesthetics she echoes from her hero writer Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her past books comes back in the second segment. Catt Greene is trying to renovate 36 run-down apartments in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while traveling between Minnesota and LA, failing to help her husband curb his addiction. She experiences powerlessness as Paul cycles through underfunded jobs as an substance abuse counselor in a environment fueled by the rage and anxiety that drives Trump's victory. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt's social media ostracism on a platform, her listed profession modified from "novelist" to "real estate holder" on the online encyclopedia. Kraus still seems to be overly concerned about this. On one occasion she states that she's researching the homicide so that before departing the state, "she might be able to learn something about an the nation that her online critics would not understand, would overlook entirely".

The Murder Narrative

So then we come to the homicide in question – and the eponymous day spent by the victim with the killer and his companions. The author possesses great source material, and knows hour by hour what occurred as the victim Brandon came to visit Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she sold sex pictures. He sought a sexual encounter but seems affably to have spent the day with her companions, wandering about fixing his automobile and paying for snacks and drugs, before being murdered by her romantic interest a man named Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has often been institutionalized for fits of anger.

Preoccupation and Open Ends

Catt gets obsessed by the story, and I found myself captivated by the way that her twin drives towards accurate chronicling and daring boundary-pushing clash in this segment. However, I would have preferred her to explore more thoroughly her individual preoccupations here. The most interesting character is Brittney herself, who comes alive partially because of Catt seeing herself in her – another bright, bullied girl spiraling out of control in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus tells us that Catt speaks to Brittney in prison, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. The whole section feels strangely incomplete, to the extent that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par