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This latest work features characters seeking clean slates, trying to break free from addictions or abusive marriages, only to see hope turn into aggression. Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "fresh start", transforming it into deliberately jaded through constant reiteration. Phrases such as "He could make a fresh start" and "They opted for a clean break" recur in the narrative. At the same time, Kraus herself appears to be undertaking her individual reinvention, since this presents as a novel form of writing – observational, authentically narrative. But then it reveals itself to be filled with the familiar conflicts and aesthetics as earlier books.

From Unplanned Author to Iconic Work

Chris Kraus started out as an creative who became a writer somewhat by chance with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, made up of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, transforming intimate women's literature from abjection into rebellion. She continued writing, but the next trio of fascinating and rebarbative novels missed the shock and immediacy that the epistolary style brought to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her role as a maverick maker who had turned into a major property owner, so there was significant attention on housing investments. It is logical that she presently aims to try out fresh narrative sources, looking outwards to other people's stories, at a time when she claims that Trumpian politics makes confessional writing unnecessary.

Multiple Generations, Shared Inescapable History

The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, encompassing three generations – all unable to escape their pasts. We encounter the story of characters Emma and Jasper, representations of her own mother and father, relocating from the Bronx to a pastoral setting. There is the account of Kraus, in the persona of Catt Greene, confronting the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction her husband Paul. And there is the account of a killing of one troubled youth by another in a locality largely deserted by liberal ideals only a short distance from Catt's cottage in rural Minnesota.

For this reader fond of honed writing of the type Kraus tends to eschew, I was captivated by the narrative style of the initial segment.

As a reader drawn to honed writing of the kind that Kraus herself usually avoids, I was seduced by the literary tone of the initial part. It exhibits a fresh level of observation that makes room for trivial aspects, like the bucket that the protagonist as a child pries out of frozen water at the beginning of the narrative, helped by her adored dad. "Look, an ice toy!" she declares; "a great plaything", he answers, "the nuanced interpretations of terms circulating in their speech like hard candy". Kraus writes Emma's narrative with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not entirely her own."

Disappointment and Disjunction

I was bound to become frustrated when I expected this new voice could last out the book. Kraus says here that she resents the satisfaction readers like me have derived from I Love Dick; she's committed to disjunction, to the untidy aesthetics she shares with her inspiration writer Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her past books returns in the middle section. Catt is attempting to do up three dozen dilapidated units in the city's most challenging districts while moving between the Midwest and the West Coast, unsuccessful in assisting Paul manage his alcohol use. She feels helpless as Paul moves between poorly supported positions as an substance abuse counselor in a environment propelled by the rage and anxiety that underpins Trump's victory. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt's social media ostracism on Twitter, her listed profession modified from "writer" to "property owner" on the online encyclopedia. The author still appears to be overly concerned about this. In a moment she states that she's looking into the killing so that before leaving Minnesota, "she could potentially understand something about an the United States that her Twitter detractors would fail to comprehend, would overlook entirely".

The Murder Narrative

So then we come to the actual killing – and the eponymous day spent by the victim with the murderer and his associates. Kraus has compelling foundational content, and details moment by moment what happened when the victim Brandon came to visit Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she offered adult photos. He was hoping for sex but seems affably to have spent the day alongside her friends, wandering about getting his car mended and funding treats and narcotics, before being murdered by Brittney's partner Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has frequently been hospitalised for fits of anger.

Obsession and Unfinished Business

The protagonist becomes fixated by the account, and I was intrigued by the way that her twin drives towards accurate chronicling and daring boundary-pushing tussle in this section. But I'd have liked her to go further into her individual preoccupations here. The most interesting character is Brittney, who comes alive in part due to the protagonist's connection to her – another bright, bullied girl spiraling out of control in a struggling, neglected community. The author informs us that Catt speaks to Brittney in detention, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. The complete segment feels strangely incomplete, to the degree that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par