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The Four Spent the Day Together is populated with protagonists chasing after clean slates, struggling to escape drugs or abusive marriages, only to see hope turn into aggression. Chris Kraus frequently uses the phrase "fresh start", rendering it deliberately jaded through its repetitions. Sentences like "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They decided to make a fresh start" recur in the text. And yet, she seems to be making her personal new beginning, since this appears a different type of work – observational, authentically narrative. However it turns out to be packed with the recurring issues and styles as earlier books.

From Accidental Writer to Renowned Book

The writer began as an artist who entered the literary world almost accidentally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, made up of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, elevating intimate women's literature from self-debasement into rebellion. She continued writing, but the following three compelling and abrasive novels missed the shock and immediacy that the epistolary style brought to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her role as a maverick maker who had become a extensive real estate holder, so there was considerable focus on housing investments. It makes sense that she presently aims to experiment with different types of content, directing her gaze to the experiences of others, at a moment when she states that current political era makes confessional writing unnecessary.

Multiple Generations, Shared Inescapable History

The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, encompassing several time periods – each trapped by their backgrounds. There is the story of Emma and Jasper, representations of Kraus's parents, relocating from the urban environment to rural Connecticut. Then there is the narrative of the author, in the persona of protagonist Catt Greene, confronting the belated success of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her addict husband her husband Paul. The third thread involves the narrative of a homicide of one directionless individual by another in a locality largely deserted by progressive politics only a short distance from Catt's rural residence in a remote part of Minnesota.

For this reader attracted to polished prose of the kind Kraus herself often avoids, I was captivated by the narrative style of the opening part.

As someone who reads who appreciates crafted language of the style that the author often disregards, I was won over by the literary tone of the initial part. It possesses a fresh level of observation that makes room for minutiae, like the pail that the young Catt dislodges from ice at the opening of the book, assisted by her adored dad. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she exclaims; "a lovely toy", he responds, "the ambiguous meanings of language circulating in their speech like piece candy". Kraus writes Emma's story with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not precisely her dream."

Letdown and Fragmentation

I was destined to be disappointed when I wished this fresh tone could persist to the end. The author states here that she dislikes the satisfaction readers like me have gotten from I Love Dick; she's devoted to fragmentation, to the messy artistic approach she shares with her hero author Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her previous novels returns in the second segment. The protagonist is attempting to do up multiple decrepit residences in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while shuttling between Minnesota and LA, failing to help Paul curb his addiction. She feels helpless as Paul transitions between poorly supported positions as an recovery specialist in a world fueled by the rage and anxiety that underpins a political win. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt being cancelled on a platform, her listed profession modified from "writer" to "property owner" on Wikipedia. She still gives the impression to care a little too much about this. On one occasion she says that she's investigating the murder so that before leaving Minnesota, "she could potentially understand something about an the nation that her Twitter detractors would be unable to grasp, would not even see".

The Homicide Account

So then we come to the homicide in question – and the titular day passed by the deceased with the killer and his companions. Kraus utilizes excellent raw material, and reconstructs step by step what happened when a man named Brandon came to see Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she marketed explicit images. He anticipated intimacy but seems affably to have spent the day with her companions, wandering about getting his car mended and paying for snacks and drugs, before being shot by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has often been institutionalized for fits of anger.

Fascination and Incompletion

Catt gets obsessed by the account, and I found myself captivated by the way that her twin drives towards accurate chronicling and audacious rule-breaking tussle in this section. But I'd have liked her to explore more thoroughly her individual preoccupations here. The most interesting character is Brittney herself, who gains dimension partly through the protagonist's connection to her – another bright, bullied girl going off the rails in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus tells us that Catt converses with Brittney in jail, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The whole section feels strangely incomplete, to the point that her narrative ends almost mid-par