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The new book is populated with individuals chasing after new beginnings, attempting to leave behind addictions or abusive marriages, only to find hope curdling into aggression. Chris Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "clean slate", rendering it willfully cynical through constant reiteration. Sentences like "He aimed to start over" and "They chose to begin anew" are scattered across the story. At the same time, the author herself is embarking on her individual reinvention, because this appears a new kind of book – observational, authentically narrative. However it reveals itself to be laden with the familiar conflicts and styles as earlier books.

From Accidental Writer to Renowned Book

Kraus began as an creative who transitioned to writing almost accidentally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, made up of missives to a distant beloved, converting intimate women's literature from abjection into defiance. She persisted as a writer, but the next trio of fascinating and rebarbative novels missed the shock and immediacy that the epistolary style imparted to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her identity as a nonconformist creator who had turned into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was significant attention on property transactions. It follows that she currently desires to experiment with different types of content, looking outwards to the experiences of others, at a moment when she claims that Trumpian politics renders personal narrative unnecessary.

Multiple Generations, One Unescapable Past

The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, covering several time periods – none able to break free from their pasts. We encounter the tale of a couple named Emma and Jasper, versions of the author's parents, transitioning from the New York borough to rural Connecticut. Then there is the account of Kraus, in the persona of a figure named Catt Greene, grappling with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse her husband Paul. And there is the story of the murder of one directionless individual by another in a locality long abandoned by forward-thinking policies only a short distance from the protagonist's home in the Minnesota countryside.

From my perspective as a reader fond of polished prose of the sort Kraus tends to eschew, I was enchanted by the narrative style of the opening part.

As someone who reads who favors honed writing of the kind that the author often disregards, I was seduced by the storytelling approach of the first section. There is a fresh level of observation that makes room for small details, like the container that the youthful Catt frees from the ice at the opening of the book, aided by her cherished parent. "Look, an ice toy!" she says; "a great plaything", he answers, "the elliptical meanings of words rolling around in their mouths like sweet treats". She tells the tale of Emma with interest and closeness. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not precisely her dream."

Letdown and Fragmentation

I was fated to feel let down when I wished this different style could persist to the end. Kraus says here that she resents the enjoyment those who appreciate polished prose have gotten from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disjunction, to the messy artistic approach she shares with her idol Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her earlier works comes back in the second segment. The protagonist is working on refurbishing three dozen dilapidated units in the city's most challenging districts while shuttling between the Midwest and the West Coast, unable to aid her husband curb his addiction. She is overwhelmed as Paul moves between low-resource employment as an substance abuse counselor in a environment propelled by the hostility and dread that underpins a political win. A significant portion discusses about the protagonist facing cancellation on a platform, her listed profession modified from "writer" to "landlord" on Wikipedia. Kraus still seems to care a little too much about this. On one occasion she states that she's investigating the murder so that before departing the state, "she may grasp something about an the United States that her social media opponents would be unable to grasp, would not even see".

The Killing Story

Thus we arrive to the homicide in question – and the referenced day spent by the murdered individual with the murderer and his companions. The author possesses excellent raw 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 offered adult photos. He sought a sexual encounter but seems amiably to have occupied the day with her companions, wandering about having his vehicle repaired and paying for snacks and drugs, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's partner Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has repeatedly received inpatient care for violent rage.

Fascination and Incompletion

Catt develops an obsession by the narrative, and I found myself captivated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards responsible documentation and reckless transgression clash in this segment. However, I would have preferred her to explore more thoroughly her own obsessions here. The most interesting character is the character Brittney, who comes alive partly through Catt seeing herself in her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual going off the rails in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus notes that Catt speaks to Brittney in jail, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. The complete segment feels oddly unfinished, to the extent that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par