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The Four Spent the Day Together centers on characters chasing after clean slates, struggling to escape drugs or harmful partnerships, only to see hope turn into conflict. Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "new beginning", making it intentionally weary through constant reiteration. Examples include "He aimed to start over" and "They chose to begin anew" recur in the narrative. Meanwhile, she seems to be making her own fresh start, as this seems a novel form of writing – documentarian, genuinely novelistic. But then it reveals itself to be packed with the same dilemmas and aesthetics as past novels.

From Chance Novelist to Iconic Work

Chris Kraus started out as an visual artist who became a writer somewhat by chance with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, made up of missives to a distant beloved, transforming intimate women's literature from self-debasement into assassination. She continued writing, but the following three compelling and abrasive novels did not possess the impact and rawness that the epistolary style brought to the tone of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her position as a renegade artist who had evolved into a major property owner, so there was significant attention on real estate deals. It follows that she presently aims to explore different types of content, looking outwards to other people's stories, at a time when she states that Trumpian politics makes confessional writing obsolete.

Multiple Generations, One Unescapable Past

The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, covering multiple eras – none able to break free from their histories. We encounter the tale of Emma and Jasper, based on Kraus's parents, relocating from the New York borough to rural Connecticut. Then there is the narrative of the author, in the guise of a figure named Catt Greene, grappling with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse a man named Paul. And there is the story of the murder of one troubled youth by another in a community mostly forsaken by progressive politics only 80 miles from Catt's cottage in the Minnesota countryside.

From my perspective as a reader fond of polished prose of the kind Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was captivated by the literary tone of the first section.

Being a reader who appreciates precise prose of the kind that Kraus tends to eschew, I was seduced by the storytelling approach of the opening segment. It exhibits a new quality of attentiveness that allows space for small details, like the container that the protagonist as a child pries out of frozen water at the beginning of the narrative, helped by her cherished parent. "Look, an ice toy!" she says; "a lovely toy", he replies, "the nuanced interpretations of terms tumbling in their mouths like hard candy". She tells Emma's narrative with inquiry and familiarity. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not hers, exactly."

Frustration and Disruption

I was fated to feel let down when I expected this different style could persist to the end. Kraus says here that she resents the satisfaction readers like me have derived from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disruption, to the unpolished style she echoes from her idol Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her previous novels returns in the central part. Catt Greene is working on refurbishing multiple decrepit residences in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while traveling between Minnesota and LA, unsuccessful in assisting her husband manage his alcohol use. She experiences powerlessness as Paul cycles through poorly supported positions as an recovery specialist in a environment propelled by the hostility and dread that powers a political win. There are several pages about the protagonist facing cancellation on Twitter, her occupation changed from "writer" to "landlord" on Wikipedia. The author still appears to invest excessive emotion about this. At one point she states that she's investigating the murder so that before leaving Minnesota, "she may grasp something about an America that her Twitter detractors would be unable to grasp, would not even perceive".

The Murder Narrative

Then we reach to the actual killing – and the eponymous day experienced by the victim with the killer and his companions. Kraus utilizes great source material, and reconstructs step by step what occurred as a man named Brandon came to visit Brittney after meeting her on an app where she offered adult photos. He anticipated intimacy but seems amiably to have occupied the day with her companions, mooching around fixing his automobile and covering the cost of food and substances, before being murdered by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has repeatedly received inpatient care for aggressive outbursts.

Fascination and Incompletion

Catt develops an obsession by the account, and I was intrigued by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards ethical reporting and daring boundary-pushing clash in this segment. However, I would have preferred her to delve deeper into her individual preoccupations here. The most interesting character is the character Brittney, who comes alive in part due to Catt seeing herself in her – another bright, bullied girl going off the rails in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus notes that Catt converses with Brittney in prison, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. This entire part feels curiously unresolved, to the extent that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par