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The new book is populated with protagonists seeking new beginnings, attempting to leave behind drugs or abusive marriages, only to find hope curdling into violence. Chris Kraus frequently uses the phrase "new beginning", rendering 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 narrative. Meanwhile, Kraus herself appears to be undertaking her own fresh start, since this appears a different type of work – fact-based, authentically narrative. But then it turns out to be laden with the recurring issues and approaches as her previous works.

From Accidental Writer to Iconic Work

Kraus began as an artist who became a writer unintentionally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, structured as epistles to an unresponsive love interest, converting personal female narrative from humiliation into defiance. She persisted as a writer, but the next trio of compelling and abrasive novels missed the power and directness that the letter form brought to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her identity as a renegade artist who had become a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was significant attention on property transactions. It follows that she presently aims to explore different types of content, directing her gaze to other people's stories, at a time when she states that Trumpian politics turns intimate literature redundant.

Three Generations, Collective Unavoidable Background

The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, encompassing multiple eras – none able to break free from their backgrounds. There is the story of Emma and Jasper, representations of the author's parents, moving from the New York borough to rural Connecticut. There is the narrative of the author, in the guise of Catt Greene, reckoning with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse a man named Paul. Finally the account of a killing of one troubled youth by another in a community largely deserted by forward-thinking policies only 80 miles from the protagonist's home in a remote part of Minnesota.

For this reader attracted to honed writing of the kind Kraus herself often avoids, I was enchanted by the narrative style of the initial segment.

As a reader drawn to precise prose of the variety that Kraus often disregards, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the initial part. There is a new quality of attentiveness that allows space for trivial aspects, like the container that the youthful Catt pries out of frozen water at the opening of the book, aided by her cherished parent. "Look, an ice toy!" she declares; "a great plaything", he answers, "the ambiguous meanings of language rolling around in their mouths like hard candy". She tells Emma's story with interest and closeness. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not entirely her own."

Letdown and Fragmentation

I was bound to become frustrated when I wished this fresh tone could last out the book. Kraus notes here that she is annoyed by the pleasure readers like me have taken from I Love Dick; she's devoted to fragmentation, to the unpolished style she shares with her idol author Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her earlier works comes back in the middle section. Catt Greene is trying to renovate three dozen dilapidated units in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while shuttling between Minnesota and LA, unsuccessful in assisting her husband curb his addiction. She feels helpless as Paul cycles through low-resource employment as an recovery specialist in a world driven by the hostility and dread that underpins a political win. A significant portion discusses about Catt being cancelled on Twitter, her professional designation altered from "novelist" to "real estate holder" on a reference site. Kraus still seems to invest excessive emotion about this. In a moment she remarks that she's researching the homicide so that before exiting the region, "she might be able to learn something about an America that her Twitter detractors would be unable to grasp, would not even perceive".

The Homicide Account

Thus we arrive to the murder itself – and the titular day spent by the deceased with the killer and his companions. Kraus has great source material, and knows hour by hour what transpired when the victim Brandon came to visit Brittney after meeting her on an app where she marketed explicit images. He was hoping for sex but appears congenially to have passed the day in the company of her associates, wandering about fixing his automobile and covering the cost of food and substances, before being murdered by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has repeatedly received inpatient care for violent rage.

Obsession and Unfinished Business

Catt develops an obsession by the narrative, and I was intrigued by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards ethical reporting and daring boundary-pushing clash in this segment. But I'd have liked her to delve deeper into her own obsessions here. The standout figure is Brittney herself, who comes alive partly through Catt's identification with her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual going off the rails in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus tells us that Catt speaks to Brittney in detention, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The whole section feels oddly unfinished, to the point that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par