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The new book centers on characters chasing after new beginnings, attempting to leave behind drugs or abusive marriages, only to find hope curdling into violence. Kraus often employs the phrase "fresh start", making it willfully cynical through constant reiteration. Phrases such as "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They chose to begin anew" are scattered across the text. And yet, Kraus herself appears to be undertaking her personal new beginning, because 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 earlier books.

From Accidental Writer to Cult Classic

Chris Kraus began as an visual artist who transitioned to writing almost accidentally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, made up of letters to an unreceptive lover, transforming intimate women's literature from abjection into rebellion. She continued writing, but the next trio of compelling and abrasive novels lacked the shock and immediacy that the epistolary style infused into the narrative voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her position as a maverick maker who had become a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was significant attention on housing investments. It follows that she now wants to experiment with fresh narrative sources, turning outward to external narratives, at a moment when she claims that Trumpian politics turns intimate literature unnecessary.

Multiple Generations, Collective Unavoidable Background

The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, spanning multiple eras – none able to break free from their histories. There is the narrative about Emma and Jasper, versions of Kraus's parents, relocating from the New York borough to a pastoral setting. There is the account of Kraus, in the guise of a figure named Catt Greene, reckoning with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction her husband Paul. Finally the account of a killing of one troubled youth by another in a locality long abandoned by progressive politics only 80 miles from Catt's cottage in a remote part of Minnesota.

As a reader drawn to polished prose of the kind Kraus herself often avoids, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the initial segment.

As someone who reads drawn to honed writing of the variety that Kraus herself often disregards, I was seduced by the storytelling approach of the opening segment. It exhibits a fresh level of observation that makes room for trivial aspects, like the container that the young Catt dislodges from ice at the start of the story, aided by her cherished parent. "I found an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a nice toy", he replies, "the ambiguous meanings of language circulating in their speech like sweet treats". The author narrates Emma's narrative with curiosity and intimacy. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not hers, exactly."

Disappointment and Disjunction

I was bound to become frustrated when I hoped this new voice could persist to the end. Kraus says here that she is annoyed by the pleasure readers like me have taken from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to fragmentation, to the unpolished style she echoes from her idol Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her earlier works returns in the second segment. Catt Greene is attempting to do up multiple decrepit residences in the city's most challenging districts while moving between two different states, unable to aid her husband manage his alcohol use. She feels helpless as Paul cycles through underfunded jobs as an substance abuse counselor in a environment propelled by the rage and anxiety that drives a political win. A significant portion discusses about Catt's social media ostracism on a platform, her professional designation altered from "author" to "landlord" on a reference site. The author still appears to be overly concerned about this. On one occasion she states that she's investigating the murder so that before exiting the region, "she may grasp something about an the nation that her online critics would not understand, would not even perceive".

The Murder Narrative

So then we come to the murder itself – and the referenced day experienced by the murdered individual with the perpetrator and his friends. The author possesses great source material, and knows hour by hour what happened when a man named Brandon came to visit Brittney after meeting her on an app where she sold sex pictures. He sought a sexual encounter but seems affably to have spent the day alongside her friends, wandering about getting his car mended and covering the cost of food and substances, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's boyfriend a man named Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has repeatedly received inpatient care for aggressive outbursts.

Obsession and Unfinished Business

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 wrestle in this part. However, I would have preferred her to explore more thoroughly her individual preoccupations here. The standout figure is Brittney herself, who comes alive in part due to the protagonist's connection to her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual spiraling out of control in a troubled, forgotten town. The author informs us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in prison, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The whole section feels strangely incomplete, to the extent that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par