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The Four Spent the Day Together centers on characters chasing after fresh starts, attempting to leave behind addictions or abusive marriages, only to witness hope devolve into aggression. Kraus frequently uses the phrase "fresh start", rendering it deliberately jaded through constant reiteration. Phrases such as "He aimed to start over" and "They chose to begin anew" are scattered across the story. And yet, the author herself is embarking on her own fresh start, because this presents as a new kind of book – documentarian, authentically narrative. Yet it turns out to be packed with the same dilemmas and aesthetics as past novels.

From Unplanned Author to Renowned Book

Chris Kraus began as an visual artist who entered the literary world almost accidentally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, structured as epistles to an unresponsive love interest, elevating confessional female writing from humiliation into assassination. She continued writing, but the three subsequent compelling and abrasive novels lacked the shock and immediacy that the letter form infused into the voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her identity as a renegade artist who had evolved into a major property owner, so there was considerable focus on real estate deals. It follows that she presently aims to try out new kinds of material, directing her gaze to external narratives, at a period in which she asserts that Trumpian politics turns intimate literature redundant.

Multiple Generations, Collective Unavoidable Background

The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, covering multiple eras – each trapped by their pasts. There is the story of characters Emma and Jasper, versions of her own mother and father, transitioning from the New York borough to a pastoral setting. Additionally the story of Kraus herself, in the character of protagonist Catt Greene, grappling with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse Paul. And there is the narrative of a homicide of one directionless individual by another in a community long abandoned by liberal ideals only 80 miles from Catt's cottage in a remote part of Minnesota.

For this reader drawn to honed writing of the kind Kraus herself often avoids, I was captivated by the literary tone of the initial segment.

As someone who reads who appreciates precise prose of the kind that the author usually avoids, I was won over by the storytelling approach of the opening segment. There is a fresh level of observation that accommodates small details, like the pail that the young Catt frees from the ice at the opening of the book, assisted by her adored dad. "Look, an ice toy!" she declares; "a nice toy", he responds, "the ambiguous meanings of language rolling around in their mouths like hard candy". Kraus writes Emma's story with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not precisely her dream."

Disappointment and Disjunction

I was bound to become frustrated when I expected this fresh tone could continue through the novel. Kraus says here that she resents the enjoyment readers like me have derived from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disjunction, to the untidy aesthetics she echoes from her hero writer Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her earlier works returns in the middle section. The protagonist is working on refurbishing three dozen dilapidated units in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while shuttling between the Midwest and the West Coast, unable to aid her husband control his drinking. She feels helpless as her spouse cycles through poorly supported positions as an recovery specialist in a environment driven by the rage and anxiety that underpins Trump's victory. A significant portion discusses about the protagonist facing cancellation on a platform, her professional designation altered from "novelist" to "property owner" on the online encyclopedia. She still gives the impression to be overly concerned about this. At one point she remarks that she's investigating the murder so that before departing the state, "she might be able to learn something about an the nation that her social media opponents would be unable to grasp, would not even perceive".

The Homicide Account

So then we come to the murder itself – and the titular day spent by the victim with the killer and his companions. The author possesses compelling foundational content, and reconstructs step by step what happened when the victim Brandon came to see Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she sold sex pictures. He sought a sexual encounter but appears congenially to have passed the day with her companions, mooching around fixing his automobile 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 violent rage.

Fascination and Incompletion

Catt gets obsessed by the story, and I was intrigued by the way that her twin drives towards ethical reporting and daring boundary-pushing clash in this segment. Yet I wished her to explore more thoroughly her own obsessions here. The standout figure is Brittney, who gains dimension partially because of Catt's identification with her – another bright, bullied girl derailing in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus tells us that Catt speaks to Brittney in detention, but she fails to enact these dialogues. This entire part feels curiously unresolved, to the extent that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par