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The new book is populated with individuals chasing after new beginnings, trying to break free from addictions or toxic relationships, only to see hope turn into aggression. Chris Kraus often employs the phrase "fresh start", rendering it 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 narrative. At the same time, she is embarking on her own fresh start, as this seems a novel form of writing – documentarian, truly literary. Yet it proves to be laden with the recurring issues and aesthetics as earlier books.

From Accidental Writer to Renowned Book

Kraus was originally an visual artist who became a writer somewhat by chance with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, structured as epistles to an unresponsive love interest, elevating confessional female writing from abjection into rebellion. She continued writing, but the three subsequent compelling and abrasive novels did not possess the shock and immediacy that the epistolary style infused into the voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by 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 makes sense that she presently aims to explore new kinds of material, looking outwards to the experiences of others, at a moment when she states that contemporary political climate turns intimate literature redundant.

Several Eras, One Unescapable Past

The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, spanning several time periods – each trapped by their pasts. We encounter the story of a couple named Emma and Jasper, representations of the author's parents, transitioning from the urban environment to a pastoral setting. Then there is the narrative of the author, in the persona of Catt Greene, confronting the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her partner struggling with addiction a man named Paul. The third thread involves the account of a killing of one lost young man by another in a locality largely deserted by forward-thinking policies only 80 miles from Catt's rural residence in the Minnesota countryside.

For this reader drawn to refined literature of the type Kraus typically rejects, I was captivated by the narrative style of the first section.

As a reader who favors honed writing of the style that Kraus usually avoids, I was captivated by the storytelling approach of the opening segment. It exhibits a new quality of attentiveness that accommodates trivial aspects, like the pail that the youthful Catt frees from the ice at the beginning of the narrative, aided by her cherished parent. "I found an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a nice toy", he answers, "the nuanced interpretations of terms rolling around in their mouths like piece candy". Kraus writes the tale of Emma with interest and closeness. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not precisely her dream."

Letdown and Fragmentation

I was bound to become frustrated when I expected this new voice could persist to the end. Kraus notes here that she resents the satisfaction those who appreciate polished prose have gotten from I Love Dick; she's committed to fragmentation, to the messy artistic approach she echoes from her idol writer Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her past books returns in the second segment. Catt is working on refurbishing 36 run-down apartments in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while moving between the Midwest and the West Coast, unsuccessful in assisting her husband control his drinking. She is overwhelmed as her spouse moves between low-resource employment as an addiction therapist in a world propelled by the rage and anxiety that underpins an electoral success. There are several pages about the protagonist facing cancellation on a platform, her professional designation altered from "author" to "landlord" on the online encyclopedia. Kraus still seems to invest excessive emotion about this. At one point she remarks that she's investigating the murder so that before leaving Minnesota, "she may grasp something about an the nation that her Twitter detractors would be unable to grasp, would not even see".

The Homicide Account

So then we come to the actual killing – and the titular day passed by the murdered individual with the killer and his friends. Kraus has excellent raw material, and details moment by moment what transpired when the victim Brandon came to meet Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she offered adult photos. He sought a sexual encounter but seems amiably to have occupied the day alongside her friends, loitering getting his car mended and covering the cost of food and substances, before being murdered by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has often been institutionalized for fits of anger.

Preoccupation and Open Ends

Catt develops an obsession by the narrative, and I found myself captivated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards accurate chronicling and audacious rule-breaking wrestle in this part. However, I would have preferred her to delve deeper into her own obsessions here. The most interesting character is Brittney herself, who gains dimension partially because of Catt seeing herself in her – another bright, bullied girl derailing 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 strangely incomplete, to the degree that her narrative ends almost mid-par