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The Four Spent the Day Together centers on characters chasing after clean slates, attempting to leave behind substance abuse or toxic relationships, only to see hope turn into conflict. Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "fresh start", transforming it into intentionally weary through recurring use. Sentences like "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They decided to make a fresh start" are scattered across the narrative. At the same time, Kraus herself appears to be undertaking her individual reinvention, because this presents as a novel form of writing – fact-based, genuinely novelistic. Yet it turns out to be packed with the same dilemmas and approaches as her previous works.

From Accidental Writer to Cult Classic

Chris Kraus was originally an visual artist who transitioned to writing somewhat by chance with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, structured as missives to a distant beloved, elevating personal female narrative from humiliation into assassination. She continued writing, but the next trio of compelling and abrasive novels lacked the shock and immediacy that the letter form brought to the voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her identity as a maverick maker who had turned into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was much discussion on housing investments. It is logical that she presently aims to experiment with new kinds of material, looking outwards to the experiences of others, at a time when she asserts that contemporary political climate turns intimate literature obsolete.

Several Eras, Shared Inescapable History

The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, spanning three generations – none able to break free from their pasts. The book includes the tale of characters Emma and Jasper, versions of Kraus's parents, relocating from the urban environment to the Connecticut countryside. Additionally the story of Kraus herself, in the guise of a figure named Catt Greene, confronting the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction a man named Paul. Finally the narrative of a homicide of one lost young man by another in a community largely deserted by forward-thinking policies only 80 miles from the protagonist's home in a remote part of Minnesota.

From my perspective as a reader fond of honed writing of the kind Kraus tends to eschew, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the first section.

As someone who reads who appreciates precise prose of the kind that Kraus herself usually avoids, I was won over by the literary tone of the initial part. There is a novel degree of detail that accommodates small details, like the bucket that the young Catt pries out of frozen water at the start of the story, assisted by her adored dad. "Look, an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a great plaything", he answers, "the elliptical meanings of words tumbling in their mouths like sweet treats". Kraus writes the tale of Emma with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not hers, exactly."

Frustration and Disruption

I was destined to be disappointed when I expected this fresh tone could continue through the novel. Kraus says here that she dislikes the satisfaction readers like me have taken from I Love Dick; she's devoted to fragmentation, to the unpolished style she shares with her idol writer Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her past books reasserts itself in the middle section. Catt is trying to renovate 36 run-down apartments in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while moving between Minnesota and LA, unsuccessful in assisting Paul manage his alcohol use. She is overwhelmed as her spouse cycles through low-resource employment as an recovery specialist in a world fueled by the hostility and dread that drives Trump's victory. There are several pages about Catt's social media ostracism on Twitter, her occupation changed from "writer" to "real estate holder" on the online encyclopedia. She still gives the impression to invest excessive emotion about this. In a moment she states that she's researching the homicide so that before leaving Minnesota, "she may grasp something about an the United States that her Twitter detractors would fail to comprehend, would not even perceive".

The Murder Narrative

Then we reach to the murder itself – and the titular day spent by the victim with the perpetrator and his associates. Kraus has compelling foundational content, and reconstructs step by step what transpired when a man named Brandon came to visit Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she marketed explicit images. He anticipated intimacy but seems amiably to have occupied the day alongside her friends, mooching around getting his car mended and paying for snacks and drugs, before being murdered by Brittney's partner Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has frequently been hospitalised for fits of anger.

Preoccupation and Open Ends

Catt develops an obsession by the account, and I was fascinated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards ethical reporting and audacious rule-breaking tussle in this section. But I'd have liked her to go further into her personal fixations here. The compelling persona is Brittney herself, who becomes vivid in part due to Catt's identification with her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman spiraling out of control in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus notes that Catt converses with Brittney in detention, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The complete segment feels strangely incomplete, to the extent that her narrative ends almost mid-par