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This latest work features protagonists pursuing clean slates, trying to break free from substance abuse or toxic relationships, only to find hope curdling into conflict. Chris Kraus often employs the phrase "fresh start", transforming it into deliberately jaded through its repetitions. Sentences like "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They chose to begin anew" recur in the story. Meanwhile, Kraus herself appears to be undertaking her own fresh start, as this seems a different type of work – observational, genuinely novelistic. Yet it reveals itself to be laden with the recurring issues and approaches as her previous works.

From Unplanned Author to Cult Classic

Chris Kraus started out as an visual artist who became a writer somewhat by chance with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, structured as letters to an unreceptive lover, converting confessional female writing from humiliation into assassination. She continued writing, but the following three engaging and challenging novels lacked the impact and rawness that the letter form infused into the voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her position as a renegade artist who had become a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was much discussion on real estate deals. It is logical that she presently aims to try out fresh narrative sources, turning outward to external narratives, at a period in which she asserts that Trumpian politics renders personal narrative obsolete.

Several Eras, One Unescapable Past

The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, spanning several time periods – each trapped by their backgrounds. We encounter the story of a couple named Emma and Jasper, versions of Kraus's parents, transitioning from the New York borough to rural Connecticut. 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 substance-dependent spouse Paul. And there is the story of the murder of one troubled youth by another in a community long abandoned by liberal ideals only a short distance from Catt's rural residence in rural Minnesota.

As a reader fond of refined literature of the kind Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was enchanted by the narrative style of the initial segment.

As someone who reads drawn to crafted language of the kind that Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was seduced by the storytelling approach of the initial part. There is a new quality of attentiveness that makes room for trivial aspects, like the pail that the youthful Catt dislodges from ice at the opening of the book, aided by her beloved father. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she says; "a great plaything", he answers, "the elliptical meanings of words tumbling in their mouths like piece candy". Kraus writes the tale of Emma with interest and closeness. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not entirely her own."

Frustration and Disruption

I was bound to become frustrated when I hoped this new voice could persist to the end. Kraus says here that she resents the satisfaction those who appreciate polished prose have taken from I Love Dick; she's committed to fragmentation, to the messy artistic approach she shares with her inspiration author Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her previous novels returns in the second segment. The protagonist is working on refurbishing multiple decrepit residences in the city's most challenging districts while shuttling between Minnesota and LA, failing to help Paul control his drinking. She feels helpless as Paul cycles through underfunded jobs as an addiction therapist in a world fueled by the anger and fear that underpins Trump's victory. There are several pages about Catt's social media ostracism on Twitter, her professional designation altered from "novelist" to "real estate holder" on the online encyclopedia. She still gives the impression to invest excessive emotion about this. On one occasion she remarks that she's researching the homicide so that before exiting the region, "she may grasp something about an the nation that her Twitter detractors would be unable to grasp, would not even perceive".

The Murder Narrative

Thus we arrive to the murder itself – and the referenced day passed by the deceased with the murderer and his associates. Kraus has compelling foundational content, and knows hour by hour what transpired when Brandon came to visit 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 in the company of her associates, mooching around fixing his automobile and covering the cost of food and substances, before being shot by Brittney's partner Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has frequently been hospitalised for aggressive outbursts.

Fascination and Incompletion

Catt develops an obsession by the account, and I was fascinated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards accurate chronicling and reckless transgression tussle in this section. Yet I wished her to explore more thoroughly her individual preoccupations here. The compelling persona is Brittney herself, who comes alive partially because of the protagonist's connection to her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual going off the rails in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus notes that Catt converses with Brittney in prison, but she fails to enact these dialogues. This entire part feels strangely incomplete, to the degree that her narrative ends almost mid-par