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The new book centers on characters chasing after clean slates, attempting to leave behind drugs or toxic relationships, only to see hope turn into aggression. Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "new beginning", rendering it intentionally weary through recurring use. Sentences like "He aimed to start over" and "They chose to begin anew" are scattered across the text. And yet, Kraus herself seems to be making her individual reinvention, because this presents as a novel form of writing – fact-based, truly literary. But then it proves to be filled with the familiar conflicts and aesthetics as her previous works.

From Unplanned Author to Iconic Work

Chris Kraus started out as an visual artist who entered the literary world unintentionally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, which was composed of letters to an unreceptive lover, elevating personal female narrative from humiliation into rebellion. She continued writing, but the following three engaging and challenging novels missed the shock and immediacy that the epistolary style infused into the tone of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her identity as a maverick maker who had turned into a major property owner, so there was much discussion on property transactions. It is logical that she now wants to try out different types of content, looking outwards to the experiences of others, at a time when she claims that current political era renders personal narrative obsolete.

Several Eras, One Unescapable Past

The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, encompassing three generations – each trapped by their pasts. There is the story of Emma and Jasper, versions of her own mother and father, moving from the Bronx to a pastoral setting. Then there is the narrative of the author, in the persona of a figure named Catt Greene, grappling with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her addict husband her husband Paul. Finally the account of a killing of one lost young man by another in a town mostly forsaken by forward-thinking policies only 80 miles from Catt's rural residence in a remote part of Minnesota.

For this reader drawn to honed writing of the sort Kraus often avoids, I was captivated by the literary tone of the opening part.

As someone who reads who appreciates honed writing of the kind that Kraus often disregards, I was seduced by the storytelling approach of the first section. There is a new quality of attentiveness that accommodates small details, like the bucket that the youthful Catt pries out of frozen water at the beginning of the narrative, assisted by her beloved father. "Look, an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a nice toy", he responds, "the nuanced interpretations of terms circulating in their speech like hard candy". The author narrates the tale of Emma with inquiry and familiarity. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not precisely her dream."

Disappointment and Disjunction

I was destined to be disappointed when I wished this fresh tone could persist to the end. Kraus notes here that she dislikes the pleasure those who appreciate polished prose have taken from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disruption, to the untidy aesthetics she echoes from her hero writer Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her past books returns in the central part. The protagonist is trying to renovate 36 run-down apartments in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while traveling between the Midwest and the West Coast, unable to aid Paul control his drinking. She is overwhelmed as her spouse cycles through low-resource employment as an addiction therapist in a world driven by the hostility and dread that underpins Trump's victory. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt's social media ostracism on Twitter, her listed profession modified from "writer" to "real estate holder" on the online encyclopedia. The author still appears to care a little too much about this. On one occasion she says that she's researching the homicide so that before leaving Minnesota, "she could potentially understand something about an the nation that her Twitter detractors would fail to comprehend, would overlook entirely".

The Murder Narrative

Thus we arrive to the actual killing – and the titular day spent by the victim with the perpetrator and his friends. Kraus utilizes excellent raw material, and details moment by moment what happened when the victim Brandon came to see Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she offered adult photos. He anticipated intimacy but seems amiably to have occupied the day alongside her friends, loitering having his vehicle repaired and covering the cost of food and substances, before being murdered by her romantic interest Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has often been institutionalized for aggressive outbursts.

Obsession and Unfinished Business

The protagonist becomes fixated by the account, and I was fascinated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards responsible documentation and daring boundary-pushing wrestle in this part. However, I would have preferred her to go further into her own obsessions here. The standout figure is Brittney, who becomes vivid partially because of Catt seeing herself in her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual spiraling out of control in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus tells us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in prison, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. The whole section feels oddly unfinished, to the extent that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par