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The Four Spent the Day Together is populated with characters chasing after new beginnings, struggling to escape drugs or abusive marriages, only to witness hope devolve into violence. The author frequently uses the phrase "clean slate", making it intentionally weary through recurring use. Sentences like "He aimed to start over" and "They decided to make a fresh start" recur in the story. At the same time, she seems to be making her personal new beginning, as this appears a different type of work – documentarian, genuinely novelistic. Yet it turns out to be laden with the recurring issues and approaches as earlier books.

From Chance Novelist to Cult Classic

Chris Kraus began as an visual artist who transitioned to writing unintentionally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, which was composed of letters to an unreceptive lover, transforming confessional female writing from self-debasement into defiance. She persisted as a writer, but the following three compelling and abrasive novels did not possess the shock and immediacy that the correspondence format infused into the tone of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her identity as a nonconformist creator who had evolved into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was much discussion on property transactions. It is logical that she presently aims to explore fresh narrative sources, looking outwards to other people's stories, at a period in which she states that contemporary political climate makes confessional writing redundant.

Three Generations, Collective Unavoidable Background

The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, encompassing three generations – none able to break free from their histories. The book includes the narrative about characters Emma and Jasper, versions of Kraus's parents, transitioning from the urban environment to a pastoral setting. Then there is the account of Kraus, in the persona of Catt Greene, grappling with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her addict husband Paul. The third thread involves the account of a killing of one lost young man by another in a town largely deserted by forward-thinking policies only a brief drive from Catt's cottage in a remote part of Minnesota.

For this reader attracted to refined literature of the kind Kraus herself often avoids, I was enchanted by the literary tone of the initial segment.

As someone who reads drawn to crafted language of the kind that Kraus usually avoids, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the initial part. There is a new quality of attentiveness that makes room for small details, like the pail that the young Catt pries out of frozen water at the start of the story, helped by her cherished parent. "Look, an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a nice toy", he replies, "the ambiguous meanings of language circulating in their speech like piece candy". She tells Emma's story with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not hers, exactly."

Frustration and Disruption

I was destined to be disappointed when I expected this different style could continue through the novel. Kraus says here that she dislikes the enjoyment those who appreciate polished prose have gotten from I Love Dick; she's committed to fragmentation, to the unpolished style she echoes from her idol author Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her past books returns in the middle section. Catt Greene is trying to renovate three dozen dilapidated units in the city's most challenging districts while shuttling between the Midwest and the West Coast, unable to aid her husband curb his addiction. She is overwhelmed as Paul cycles through low-resource employment as an substance abuse counselor in a society fueled by the anger and fear that drives Trump's victory. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt being cancelled on Twitter, her listed profession modified from "novelist" to "landlord" on the online encyclopedia. She still gives the impression to care a little too much about this. At one point she states that she's researching the homicide so that before exiting the region, "she may grasp something about an the United States that her Twitter detractors would not understand, would not even see".

The Murder Narrative

Thus we arrive to the murder itself – and the referenced day experienced by the deceased with the murderer and his associates. Kraus utilizes excellent raw material, and knows hour by hour what transpired when a man named Brandon came to see Brittney after meeting her on an app where she offered adult photos. He was hoping for sex but seems amiably to have occupied the day with her companions, wandering about having his vehicle repaired and covering the cost of food and substances, before being killed by gunfire by her romantic interest Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has repeatedly received inpatient care for fits of anger.

Fascination and Incompletion

The protagonist becomes fixated by the account, and I was intrigued by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards responsible documentation and reckless transgression clash in this segment. But I'd have liked her to go further into her individual preoccupations here. The standout figure is Brittney, who gains dimension partly through the protagonist's connection to her – another bright, bullied girl going off the rails in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus notes that Catt converses with Brittney in detention, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The whole section feels oddly unfinished, to the point that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par