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This latest work is populated with individuals pursuing new beginnings, struggling to escape substance abuse or harmful partnerships, only to find hope curdling into violence. Kraus frequently uses the phrase "fresh start", making it intentionally weary through its repetitions. Sentences like "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They opted for a clean break" are scattered across the story. And yet, Kraus herself seems to be making her individual reinvention, as this appears a novel form of writing – observational, truly literary. But then it proves to be laden with the familiar conflicts and styles as earlier books.

From Chance Novelist to Renowned Book

Chris Kraus began as an artist who entered the literary world somewhat by chance with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, which was composed of letters to an unreceptive lover, transforming confessional female writing from self-debasement into rebellion. She persisted as a writer, but the three subsequent engaging and challenging novels lacked the shock and immediacy that the correspondence format brought to the voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her identity as a renegade artist who had evolved into a major property owner, so there was considerable focus on real estate deals. It follows that she currently desires to explore different types of content, directing her gaze to the experiences of others, at a period in which she states that current political era renders personal narrative unnecessary.

Several Eras, One Unescapable Past

The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, covering several time periods – none able to break free from their backgrounds. We encounter the narrative about Emma and Jasper, versions of Kraus's parents, relocating from the Bronx to a pastoral setting. There is the account of Kraus, in the persona of Catt Greene, grappling with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her addict husband her husband Paul. The third thread involves the account of a killing of one troubled youth by another in a locality mostly forsaken by liberal ideals only 80 miles from the protagonist's home in a remote part of Minnesota.

For this reader fond of polished prose of the kind the author herself tends to eschew, I was enchanted by the literary tone of the opening part.

As someone who reads drawn to honed writing of the kind that Kraus usually avoids, I was seduced by the storytelling approach of the first section. There is a fresh level of observation that makes room for trivial aspects, like the bucket that the young Catt pries out of frozen water at the opening of the book, aided by her beloved father. "Look, an ice toy!" she says; "a lovely toy", he responds, "the elliptical meanings of words circulating in their speech like hard candy". The author narrates Emma's narrative with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not hers, exactly."

Disappointment and Disjunction

I was bound to become frustrated when I expected this new voice could last out the book. The author states here that she is annoyed by the pleasure those who appreciate polished prose have taken from I Love Dick; she's committed to disruption, to the messy artistic approach she shares with her inspiration Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her previous novels reasserts itself in the second segment. Catt Greene is attempting to do up multiple decrepit residences in the city's most challenging districts while traveling between Minnesota and LA, failing to help her husband control his drinking. She is overwhelmed as her spouse cycles through low-resource employment as an addiction therapist in a society driven by the hostility and dread that underpins Trump's victory. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt being cancelled on a platform, her occupation changed from "novelist" to "property owner" on Wikipedia. The author still appears to be overly concerned about this. At one point she remarks that she's researching the homicide so that before departing the state, "she could potentially understand something about an America that her Twitter detractors would fail to comprehend, would not even see".

The Killing Story

So then we come to the murder itself – and the eponymous day experienced by the victim with the perpetrator and his friends. Kraus has compelling foundational content, and details moment by moment what happened when a man named Brandon came to meet Brittney after meeting her on an app where she sold sex pictures. He was hoping for sex but appears congenially to have passed the day in the company of her associates, mooching around getting his car mended and paying for snacks and drugs, before being murdered by Brittney's partner a man named Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has frequently been hospitalised for violent rage.

Obsession and Unfinished Business

The protagonist becomes fixated by the account, and I was fascinated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards responsible documentation and daring boundary-pushing clash in this segment. However, I would have preferred her to delve deeper into her own obsessions here. The standout figure is Brittney, who gains dimension partially because of the protagonist's connection to her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual spiraling out of control in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus notes that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in prison, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. This entire part feels strangely incomplete, to the degree that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par