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This latest work features protagonists pursuing clean slates, trying to break free from drugs or toxic relationships, only to see hope turn into aggression. Chris Kraus often employs the phrase "fresh start", making it willfully cynical through recurring use. Sentences like "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They decided to make a fresh start" recur in the text. Meanwhile, she appears to be undertaking her personal new beginning, as this presents as a new kind of book – observational, truly literary. But then it turns out to be packed with the same dilemmas and styles as earlier books.

From Accidental Writer to Cult Classic

The writer started out as an creative who entered the literary world unintentionally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, structured as missives to a distant beloved, transforming personal female narrative from abjection into defiance. She continued writing, but the three subsequent compelling and abrasive novels missed the power and directness that the correspondence format imparted to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her position as a nonconformist creator who had turned into a extensive real estate holder, so there was significant attention on housing investments. It follows that she currently desires to try out fresh narrative sources, directing her gaze to the experiences of others, at a moment when she states that current political era turns intimate literature redundant.

Several Eras, One Unescapable Past

The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, spanning several time periods – none able to break free from their pasts. We encounter the tale of Emma and Jasper, representations of her own mother and father, relocating from the New York borough to the Connecticut countryside. Then there is the account of Kraus, in the character of a figure named Catt Greene, grappling with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her partner struggling with addiction a man named Paul. And there is the account of a killing of one directionless individual by another in a locality mostly forsaken by progressive politics only a short distance from Catt's rural residence in a remote part of Minnesota.

From my perspective as a reader drawn to polished prose of the sort Kraus herself typically rejects, I was captivated by the literary tone of the initial segment.

Being a reader who appreciates precise prose of the kind that Kraus herself often disregards, I was won over by the storytelling approach of the first section. There is a fresh level of observation that accommodates minutiae, like the bucket that the protagonist as a child pries out of frozen water at the opening of the book, assisted by her beloved father. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she says; "a great plaything", he replies, "the ambiguous meanings of language circulating in their speech like sweet treats". The author narrates Emma's story with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not entirely her own."

Disappointment and Disjunction

I was destined to be disappointed when I expected this different style could continue through the novel. Kraus notes here that she resents the satisfaction audiences such as myself have taken from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disjunction, to the untidy aesthetics she echoes from her inspiration author Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her earlier works comes back in the central part. Catt Greene is working on refurbishing multiple decrepit residences in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while shuttling between two different states, unsuccessful in assisting Paul manage his alcohol use. She is overwhelmed as Paul moves between poorly supported positions as an recovery specialist in a world fueled by the anger and fear that underpins an electoral success. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt's social media ostracism on social media, her occupation changed from "writer" to "landlord" on the online encyclopedia. She still gives the impression to care a little too much about this. On one occasion she states that she's looking into the killing so that before departing the state, "she may grasp something about an the nation that her online critics would fail to comprehend, would overlook entirely".

The Homicide Account

Thus we arrive to the actual killing – and the eponymous day experienced by the deceased with the killer and his associates. Kraus utilizes great source material, and reconstructs step by step what happened when the victim Brandon came to visit Brittney after connecting via an application where she sold sex pictures. He sought a sexual encounter but seems affably to have spent the day in the company of her associates, mooching around getting his car mended and funding treats and narcotics, before being murdered by Brittney's partner Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has frequently been hospitalised for aggressive outbursts.

Preoccupation and Open Ends

The protagonist becomes fixated by the account, and I was intrigued by the way that her twin drives towards accurate chronicling and reckless transgression wrestle in this part. However, I would have preferred her to explore more thoroughly her personal fixations here. The standout figure is Brittney herself, who becomes vivid partially because of Catt's identification with her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual derailing in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus notes that Catt converses with Brittney in detention, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. This entire part feels curiously unresolved, to the extent that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par