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The Four Spent the Day Together centers on characters seeking new beginnings, trying to break free from substance abuse or toxic relationships, only to find hope curdling into violence. Chris Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "fresh start", rendering it intentionally weary through constant reiteration. Examples include "He could make a fresh start" and "They opted for a clean break" appear throughout the narrative. Meanwhile, she appears to be undertaking her personal new beginning, as this presents as a new kind of book – fact-based, authentically narrative. However it proves to be packed with the same dilemmas and aesthetics as earlier books.

From Chance Novelist to Cult Classic

Chris Kraus began as an visual artist who transitioned to writing almost accidentally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, which was composed of missives to a distant beloved, elevating confessional female writing from self-debasement into defiance. She kept producing books, but the next trio of fascinating and rebarbative novels did not possess the shock and immediacy that the epistolary style imparted to the voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her identity as a renegade artist who had become a extensive real estate holder, so there was considerable focus on housing investments. It makes sense that she presently aims to explore fresh narrative sources, looking outwards to other people's stories, at a time when she claims that Trumpian politics makes confessional writing obsolete.

Three Generations, Collective Unavoidable Background

The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, spanning multiple eras – each trapped by their histories. We encounter the tale of Emma and Jasper, based on Kraus's parents, relocating from the Bronx to the Connecticut countryside. Additionally the narrative of the author, in the guise of protagonist Catt Greene, reckoning with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction Paul. The third thread involves the narrative of a homicide of one troubled youth by another in a locality long abandoned by progressive politics only 80 miles from Catt's rural residence in a remote part of Minnesota.

From my perspective as a reader attracted to polished prose of the kind Kraus herself typically rejects, I was seduced by the narrative style of the opening part.

Being a reader who favors crafted language of the style that the author usually avoids, I was seduced by the literary tone of the opening segment. It exhibits a fresh level of observation that makes room for minutiae, like the container that the youthful Catt frees from the ice at the opening of the book, helped by her adored dad. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she says; "a nice toy", he responds, "the nuanced interpretations of terms rolling around in their mouths like hard candy". She tells Emma's narrative with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not entirely her own."

Frustration and Disruption

I was bound to become frustrated when I expected this new voice could continue through the novel. Kraus says here that she is annoyed by the enjoyment audiences such as myself have taken from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disjunction, to the unpolished style she shares with her hero Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her previous novels reasserts itself in the central part. Catt Greene is working on refurbishing three dozen dilapidated units in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while moving between the Midwest and the West Coast, unable to aid her husband curb his addiction. She is overwhelmed as Paul cycles through underfunded jobs as an substance abuse counselor in a world fueled by the hostility and dread that underpins an electoral success. There are several pages about Catt being cancelled on Twitter, her occupation changed from "writer" to "landlord" on the online encyclopedia. Kraus still seems to be overly concerned about this. In a moment she says that she's investigating the murder so that before leaving Minnesota, "she could potentially understand something about an America that her online critics would not understand, would overlook entirely".

The Killing Story

Thus we arrive to the actual killing – and the eponymous day experienced by the murdered individual with the perpetrator and his associates. Kraus has compelling foundational content, and knows hour by hour what happened when a man named Brandon came to meet Brittney after meeting her on an app where she offered adult photos. He anticipated intimacy but appears congenially to have passed the day with her companions, mooching around having his vehicle repaired and funding treats and narcotics, before being murdered by her romantic interest a man named Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has often been institutionalized for fits of anger.

Preoccupation and Open Ends

The protagonist becomes fixated by the narrative, and I was fascinated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards ethical reporting and reckless transgression wrestle in this part. However, I would have preferred her to go further into her own obsessions here. The standout figure is the character Brittney, who comes alive in part due to Catt's identification with her – another bright, bullied girl spiraling out of control in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus tells us that Catt speaks to Brittney in jail, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The complete segment feels curiously unresolved, to the point that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par