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The Four Spent the Day Together features protagonists pursuing clean slates, attempting to leave behind drugs or harmful partnerships, only to find hope curdling into violence. Chris Kraus frequently uses the phrase "new beginning", transforming it into intentionally weary through recurring use. Phrases such as "He could make a fresh start" and "They opted for a clean break" recur in the story. Meanwhile, Kraus herself appears to be undertaking her personal new beginning, because this seems a new kind of book – observational, truly literary. But then it turns out to be packed with the same dilemmas and aesthetics as her previous works.

From Unplanned Author to Cult Classic

Kraus started out as an creative who became a writer somewhat by chance with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, which was composed of letters to an unreceptive lover, transforming intimate women's literature from self-debasement into rebellion. She kept producing books, but the three subsequent engaging and challenging novels missed the power and directness that the letter form imparted to the voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her role as a maverick maker who had become a extensive real estate holder, so there was significant attention on housing investments. It is logical that she currently desires to try out fresh narrative sources, looking outwards to external narratives, at a period in which she states that Trumpian politics turns intimate literature obsolete.

Three Generations, Shared Inescapable History

The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, covering multiple eras – none able to break free from their pasts. There is the tale of a couple named Emma and Jasper, representations of the author's parents, moving from the urban environment to a pastoral setting. Additionally the story of Kraus herself, in the guise of protagonist Catt Greene, grappling with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse a man named Paul. And there is the account of a killing of one directionless individual by another in a locality long abandoned by liberal ideals only a short distance from the protagonist's home in a remote part of Minnesota.

For this reader attracted to polished prose of the kind Kraus tends to eschew, I was seduced by the narrative style of the first section.

As someone who reads drawn to precise prose of the kind that Kraus tends to eschew, I was captivated by the storytelling approach of the opening segment. There is a novel degree of detail that accommodates minutiae, like the bucket that the protagonist as a child pries out of frozen water at the opening of the book, helped by her adored dad. "I found an ice toy!" she says; "a great plaything", he answers, "the elliptical meanings of words rolling around in their mouths like piece candy". She tells Emma's narrative with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not hers, exactly."

Frustration and Disruption

I was destined to be disappointed when I wished this fresh tone could continue through the novel. The author states here that she is annoyed by the enjoyment audiences such as myself have taken from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disruption, to the unpolished style she has in common with her inspiration writer Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her earlier works reasserts itself in the middle section. The protagonist is trying to renovate three dozen dilapidated units in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while moving between the Midwest and the West Coast, unsuccessful in assisting Paul control his drinking. She is overwhelmed as Paul cycles through low-resource employment as an recovery specialist in a society propelled by the rage and anxiety that underpins Trump's victory. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt's social media ostracism on a platform, her occupation changed from "author" to "landlord" on Wikipedia. Kraus still seems to invest excessive emotion about this. On one occasion she states that she's looking into the killing so that before departing the state, "she might be able to learn something about an the United States that her Twitter detractors would fail to comprehend, would overlook entirely".

The Murder Narrative

So then we come to the homicide in question – and the titular day spent by the victim with the perpetrator and his associates. Kraus has great source material, and details moment by moment what transpired when the victim Brandon came to meet Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she offered adult photos. He sought a sexual encounter but appears congenially to have passed the day in the company of her associates, loitering fixing his automobile and paying for snacks and drugs, before being killed by gunfire by her romantic interest Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has frequently been hospitalised for fits of anger.

Preoccupation and Open Ends

Catt develops an obsession by the account, and I found myself captivated by the way that her twin drives towards accurate chronicling and reckless transgression clash in this segment. Yet I wished her to explore more thoroughly her personal fixations here. The most interesting character is Brittney, who comes alive in part due to Catt's identification with her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman spiraling out of control in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus notes that Catt speaks to Brittney in jail, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. The complete segment feels strangely incomplete, to the extent that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par