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The Four Spent the Day Together centers on individuals pursuing fresh starts, trying to break free from drugs or abusive marriages, only to witness hope devolve into conflict. The author frequently uses the phrase "clean slate", transforming it into deliberately jaded through its repetitions. Phrases such as "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They chose to begin anew" recur in the text. At the same time, she appears to be undertaking her own fresh start, since this seems a different type of work – fact-based, truly literary. Yet it turns out to be laden with the familiar conflicts and approaches as past novels.

From Chance Novelist to Renowned Book

Chris Kraus began as an artist who entered the literary world unintentionally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, made up of letters to an unreceptive lover, elevating confessional female writing from humiliation into rebellion. She continued writing, but the three subsequent fascinating and rebarbative novels missed the shock and immediacy that the correspondence format brought to the tone of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her position as a renegade artist who had turned into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was considerable focus on property transactions. It follows that she currently desires to experiment with different types of content, looking outwards to external narratives, at a time when she claims that contemporary political climate turns intimate literature unnecessary.

Three Generations, Collective Unavoidable Background

The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, covering several time periods – each trapped by their pasts. The book includes the story of characters Emma and Jasper, representations of the author's parents, transitioning from the Bronx to a pastoral setting. Additionally the narrative of the author, in the character of Catt Greene, reckoning with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction her husband Paul. Finally the account of a killing of one directionless individual by another in a locality long abandoned by liberal ideals only 80 miles from the protagonist's home in the Minnesota countryside.

From my perspective as a reader drawn to honed writing of the kind Kraus herself often avoids, I was enchanted by the novelistic voice of the first section.

Being a reader who favors honed writing of the style that the author usually avoids, I was won over by the storytelling approach of the first section. There is a novel degree of detail that accommodates small details, like the container that the young Catt frees from the ice at the beginning of the narrative, assisted by her beloved father. "I found an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a great plaything", he responds, "the ambiguous meanings of language rolling around in their mouths like sweet treats". She tells Emma's story with interest and closeness. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not entirely her own."

Disappointment and Disjunction

I was bound to become frustrated when I hoped this different style could last out the book. Kraus says here that she resents the satisfaction audiences such as myself have taken from I Love Dick; she's committed to fragmentation, to the untidy aesthetics she shares with her hero author Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her past books reasserts itself in the middle section. Catt Greene is working on refurbishing multiple decrepit residences in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while shuttling between Minnesota and LA, failing to help Paul curb his addiction. She is overwhelmed as Paul transitions between poorly supported positions as an addiction therapist in a world driven by the hostility and dread that powers Trump's victory. Multiple pages are devoted about the protagonist facing cancellation 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. On one occasion she says that she's researching the homicide so that before leaving Minnesota, "she could potentially understand something about an America that her Twitter detractors would be unable to grasp, would not even perceive".

The Killing Story

Then we reach to the homicide in question – and the titular day experienced by the victim with the murderer and his associates. Kraus utilizes compelling foundational content, and knows hour by hour what transpired when Brandon came to see Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she marketed explicit images. He sought a sexual encounter but appears congenially to have passed the day in the company of her associates, mooching around having his vehicle repaired and paying for snacks and drugs, before being murdered by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has often been institutionalized for fits of anger.

Obsession and Unfinished Business

The protagonist becomes fixated by the narrative, and I found myself captivated by the way that her twin drives towards responsible documentation and reckless transgression tussle in this section. Yet I wished her to explore more thoroughly her individual preoccupations here. The standout figure is the character Brittney, who comes alive partly through Catt's identification with her – another bright, bullied girl going off the rails in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus notes that Catt converses with Brittney in detention, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. The whole section feels oddly unfinished, to the degree that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par