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The new book is populated with individuals pursuing fresh starts, trying to break free from addictions or harmful partnerships, only to see hope turn into violence. Chris Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "clean slate", making it willfully cynical through constant reiteration. Sentences like "He aimed to start over" and "They chose to begin anew" are scattered across the narrative. And yet, the author herself appears to be undertaking her personal new beginning, because this appears a new kind of book – documentarian, genuinely novelistic. But then it proves to be laden with the familiar conflicts and styles as past novels.

From Chance Novelist to Renowned Book

The writer started out as an artist who transitioned to writing almost accidentally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, which was composed of missives to a distant beloved, converting confessional female writing from abjection into assassination. She persisted as a writer, but the three subsequent engaging and challenging novels lacked the impact and rawness that the correspondence format imparted to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her role as a maverick maker who had become a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was considerable focus on property transactions. It follows that she currently desires to try out fresh narrative sources, looking outwards to other people's stories, at a time when she claims that current political era renders personal narrative unnecessary.

Three Generations, One Unescapable Past

The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, covering several time periods – none able to break free from their backgrounds. We encounter the narrative about Emma and Jasper, representations of the author's parents, relocating from the Bronx to rural Connecticut. Then there is the narrative of the author, in the guise of protagonist Catt Greene, reckoning with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her addict husband Paul. The third thread involves the account of a killing of one directionless individual by another in a town mostly forsaken by forward-thinking policies only 80 miles from Catt's cottage in rural Minnesota.

As a reader drawn to polished prose of the type Kraus tends to eschew, I was enchanted by the literary tone of the opening part.

As someone who reads who favors precise prose of the variety that Kraus herself usually avoids, I was won over by the storytelling approach of the initial part. There is a fresh level of observation that makes room for small details, like the pail that the youthful Catt frees from the ice at the start of the story, helped by her cherished parent. "Look, an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a nice toy", he replies, "the elliptical meanings of words rolling around in their mouths like sweet treats". Kraus writes the tale of Emma with interest and closeness. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not hers, exactly."

Disappointment and Disjunction

I was fated to feel let down when I wished this fresh tone could last out the book. Kraus says here that she is annoyed by the pleasure those who appreciate polished prose have derived from I Love Dick; she's committed to disjunction, to the unpolished style she echoes from her idol Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her earlier works reasserts itself in the central part. The protagonist is working on refurbishing 36 run-down apartments in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while traveling between two different states, failing to help Paul control his drinking. She feels helpless as Paul transitions between low-resource employment as an recovery specialist in a environment propelled by the hostility and dread that powers an electoral success. There are several pages about Catt's social media ostracism on Twitter, her professional designation altered from "novelist" to "property owner" on the online encyclopedia. She still gives the impression to be overly concerned about this. On one occasion she says that she's researching the homicide so that before exiting the region, "she could potentially understand something about an the United States that her social media opponents would fail to comprehend, would overlook entirely".

The Killing Story

Then we reach to the murder itself – and the referenced day experienced by the deceased with the killer and his companions. Kraus has excellent raw material, and details moment by moment what transpired when the victim Brandon came to see Brittney after connecting via an application where she offered adult photos. He was hoping for sex but seems affably to have spent the day with her companions, wandering about having his vehicle repaired and paying for snacks and drugs, before being killed by gunfire by her romantic interest Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has repeatedly received inpatient care for aggressive outbursts.

Obsession and Unfinished Business

The protagonist becomes fixated by the narrative, and I found myself captivated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards accurate chronicling and audacious rule-breaking wrestle in this part. But I'd have liked her to explore more thoroughly her individual preoccupations here. The compelling persona is Brittney, who becomes vivid in part due to Catt's identification with her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman going off the rails in a troubled, forgotten town. The author informs us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in jail, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The complete segment feels strangely incomplete, to the point that her narrative ends almost mid-par