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The new book features individuals seeking new beginnings, attempting to leave behind drugs or harmful partnerships, only to find hope curdling into aggression. The author frequently uses the phrase "clean slate", transforming it into willfully cynical through recurring use. Sentences like "He could make a fresh start" and "They decided to make a fresh start" recur in the story. And yet, she seems to be making her own fresh start, because this appears a new kind of book – observational, authentically narrative. Yet it proves to be filled with the same dilemmas and styles as earlier books.

From Accidental Writer to Renowned Book

Chris Kraus was originally an creative who entered the literary world unintentionally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, structured as epistles to an unresponsive love interest, transforming intimate women's literature from self-debasement into defiance. She continued writing, but the following three engaging and challenging novels did not possess the power and directness that the letter form imparted to the tone of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her role as a maverick maker who had evolved into a major property owner, so there was considerable focus on real estate deals. It is logical that she now wants to try out different types of content, turning outward to other people's stories, at a time when she claims that contemporary political climate renders personal narrative redundant.

Several Eras, Collective Unavoidable Background

The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, covering several time periods – none able to break free from their histories. We encounter the story of characters Emma and Jasper, versions of Kraus's parents, moving from the urban environment to the Connecticut countryside. Additionally the account of Kraus, in the persona of protagonist Catt Greene, confronting the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction Paul. Finally the narrative of a homicide of one directionless individual by another in a community long abandoned by progressive politics only 80 miles from Catt's cottage in rural Minnesota.

From my perspective as a reader drawn to refined literature of the type Kraus typically rejects, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the first section.

Being a reader drawn to crafted language of the style that Kraus usually avoids, I was captivated by the literary tone of the opening segment. It exhibits a new quality of attentiveness that makes room for small details, like the pail that the protagonist as a child dislodges from ice at the opening of the book, assisted by her cherished parent. "I found an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a great plaything", he responds, "the elliptical meanings of words circulating in their speech like piece candy". The author narrates Emma's story with interest and closeness. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not entirely her own."

Frustration and Disruption

I was bound to become frustrated when I wished this fresh tone could continue through the novel. The author states here that she resents the satisfaction audiences such as myself have derived from I Love Dick; she's committed to disjunction, to the messy artistic approach she has in common with her inspiration author Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her previous novels reasserts itself in the middle section. Catt is working on refurbishing 36 run-down apartments in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while traveling between two different states, unsuccessful in assisting Paul curb his addiction. She is overwhelmed as Paul transitions between underfunded jobs as an addiction therapist in a environment driven by the hostility and dread that drives a political win. There are several pages about Catt's social media ostracism on a platform, her listed profession modified from "author" to "property owner" on a reference site. The author still appears to invest excessive emotion about this. At one point she says that she's looking into the killing so that before exiting the region, "she could potentially understand something about an America that her Twitter detractors would be unable to grasp, would not even see".

The Murder Narrative

Thus we arrive to the actual killing – and the referenced day experienced by the deceased with the killer and his associates. Kraus utilizes compelling foundational content, and knows hour by hour what happened when Brandon came to see Brittney after meeting her on an app 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 murdered by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has frequently been hospitalised for fits of anger.

Fascination and Incompletion

Catt gets obsessed by the narrative, and I was intrigued by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards responsible documentation and audacious rule-breaking tussle in this section. Yet I wished her to go further into her individual preoccupations here. The standout figure is the character Brittney, who comes alive partly through the protagonist's connection to her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual going off the rails in a troubled, forgotten town. The author informs us that Catt speaks to Brittney in jail, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. This entire part feels strangely incomplete, to the point that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par