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The new book features characters seeking clean slates, struggling to escape substance abuse or toxic relationships, only to witness hope devolve into aggression. Chris Kraus frequently uses the phrase "new beginning", making it willfully cynical through its repetitions. Phrases such as "He could make a fresh start" and "They chose to begin anew" recur in the narrative. Meanwhile, the author herself seems to be making her personal new beginning, as this seems a new kind of book – observational, genuinely novelistic. Yet it reveals itself to be laden with the same dilemmas and aesthetics as past novels.

From Unplanned Author to Cult Classic

Kraus started out as an visual artist who transitioned to writing almost accidentally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, which was composed of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, transforming confessional female writing from self-debasement into defiance. She continued writing, but the next trio of engaging and challenging novels missed the impact and rawness that the epistolary style imparted to the voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her role as a nonconformist creator who had evolved into a extensive real estate holder, so there was significant attention on housing investments. It follows that she presently aims to try out new kinds of material, turning outward to other people's stories, at a period in which she states that current political era makes confessional writing redundant.

Several Eras, 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. There is the story of Emma and Jasper, representations of her own mother and father, relocating from the New York borough to rural Connecticut. Additionally the narrative of the author, in the character of Catt Greene, confronting the belated success of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction a man named Paul. The third thread involves the account of a killing of one troubled youth by another in a community largely deserted by forward-thinking policies only 80 miles from Catt's rural residence in the Minnesota countryside.

For this reader fond of honed writing of the sort the author herself often avoids, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the opening part.

As someone who reads who favors precise prose of the kind that the author tends to eschew, I was won over by the literary tone of the opening segment. It exhibits a fresh level of observation that allows space for trivial aspects, like the pail that the youthful Catt frees from the ice at the opening of the book, helped by her cherished parent. "I found an ice toy!" she says; "a great plaything", he replies, "the elliptical meanings of words rolling around in their mouths like piece candy". Kraus writes Emma's story with interest and closeness. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not entirely her own."

Disappointment and Disjunction

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 satisfaction audiences such as myself have derived from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disruption, to the unpolished style she shares with her hero author Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her previous novels returns in the middle section. The protagonist is working on refurbishing multiple decrepit residences in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while traveling between Minnesota and LA, unsuccessful in assisting Paul control his drinking. She feels helpless as her spouse transitions between poorly supported positions as an recovery specialist in a world fueled by the anger and fear that powers a political win. Multiple pages are devoted about the protagonist facing cancellation on Twitter, her occupation changed from "novelist" to "real estate holder" on Wikipedia. The author still appears to invest excessive emotion about this. At one point she states that she's researching the homicide so that before exiting the region, "she could potentially understand something about an the United States that her Twitter detractors would not understand, would not even see".

The Killing Story

Then we reach to the homicide in question – and the titular day experienced by the deceased with the perpetrator and his companions. Kraus utilizes great source material, and details moment by moment what occurred as Brandon came to visit Brittney after meeting her on an app where she sold sex pictures. He was hoping for sex but seems amiably to have occupied the day with her companions, mooching around getting his car mended and funding treats and narcotics, before being shot by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has repeatedly received inpatient care for fits of anger.

Obsession and Unfinished Business

Catt gets obsessed by the narrative, and I found myself captivated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards accurate chronicling and audacious rule-breaking clash in this segment. But I'd have liked her to delve deeper into her personal fixations here. The most interesting character is Brittney, who comes alive partly through the protagonist's connection to her – another bright, bullied girl going off the rails in a struggling, neglected community. The author informs us that Catt converses with Brittney in jail, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The complete segment feels curiously unresolved, to the point that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par