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This latest work is populated with individuals seeking new beginnings, trying to break free from drugs or abusive marriages, only to witness hope devolve into aggression. Chris Kraus frequently uses the phrase "clean slate", transforming it into intentionally weary through recurring use. Phrases such as "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They decided to make a fresh start" appear throughout the narrative. Meanwhile, Kraus herself is embarking on her individual reinvention, because this appears a new kind of book – observational, authentically narrative. However it proves to be laden with the same dilemmas and approaches as her previous works.

From Accidental Writer to Cult Classic

The writer started out as an visual artist who became a writer unintentionally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, which was composed of letters to an unreceptive lover, transforming confessional female writing from humiliation into rebellion. She continued writing, but the following three compelling and abrasive novels did not possess the power and directness that the correspondence format infused into the voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her role as a maverick maker who had become a major property owner, so there was much discussion on real estate deals. It follows that she presently aims to try out different types of content, looking outwards to the experiences of others, at a period in which she asserts that contemporary political climate makes confessional writing redundant.

Three Generations, Shared Inescapable History

The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, spanning several time periods – all unable to escape their histories. There is the tale of a couple named Emma and Jasper, based on Kraus's parents, moving from the New York borough to rural Connecticut. Additionally the account of Kraus, in the character of Catt Greene, grappling with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her substance-dependent spouse a man named Paul. And there is the story of the murder of one directionless individual by another in a locality mostly forsaken by liberal ideals only a brief drive from Catt's cottage in the Minnesota countryside.

For this reader drawn to polished prose of the type the author herself often avoids, I was seduced by the narrative style of the initial segment.

Being a reader who favors precise prose of the variety that Kraus herself usually avoids, I was captivated by the storytelling approach of the initial part. It exhibits a new quality of attentiveness that accommodates trivial aspects, like the container that the youthful Catt pries out of frozen water at the beginning of the narrative, assisted by her cherished parent. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she declares; "a great plaything", he responds, "the nuanced interpretations of terms tumbling in their mouths like sweet treats". Kraus writes the tale of Emma with curiosity and intimacy. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not entirely her own."

Disappointment and Disjunction

I was bound to become frustrated when I expected this different style could persist to the end. The author states here that she dislikes the pleasure readers like me have gotten from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disjunction, to the messy artistic approach she echoes from her idol author Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her past books comes back in the central part. Catt is trying to renovate multiple decrepit residences in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while moving between the Midwest and the West Coast, unable to aid Paul manage his alcohol use. She experiences powerlessness as Paul transitions between underfunded jobs as an addiction therapist in a world driven by the rage and anxiety that underpins a political win. There are several pages about Catt's social media ostracism on social media, her listed profession modified from "author" to "real estate holder" on Wikipedia. The author still appears to invest excessive emotion about this. On one occasion she states that she's researching the homicide so that before leaving Minnesota, "she may grasp something about an the nation that her Twitter detractors would not understand, would not even perceive".

The Homicide Account

So then we come to the homicide in question – and the eponymous day passed by the victim with the perpetrator and his friends. Kraus has compelling foundational content, and reconstructs step by step what happened when Brandon came to see 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 alongside her friends, loitering having his vehicle repaired and paying for snacks and drugs, before being shot by Brittney's partner Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has often been institutionalized for aggressive outbursts.

Obsession and Unfinished Business

Catt develops an obsession by the story, and I found myself captivated by the way that her twin drives towards responsible documentation and daring boundary-pushing tussle in this section. But I'd have liked her to explore more thoroughly her personal fixations here. The compelling persona is Brittney, who becomes vivid partially because of Catt seeing herself in her – another bright, bullied girl going off the rails in a troubled, forgotten town. The author informs us that Catt speaks to Brittney in jail, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. The complete segment feels curiously unresolved, to the point that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par