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The Four Spent the Day Together is populated with individuals seeking clean slates, struggling to escape substance abuse or toxic relationships, only to find hope curdling into conflict. The author frequently uses the phrase "fresh start", rendering it deliberately jaded through recurring use. Examples include "He aimed to start over" and "They decided to make a fresh start" recur in the text. And yet, she is embarking on her individual reinvention, because this seems a novel form of writing – documentarian, authentically narrative. However it turns out to be filled with the familiar conflicts and aesthetics as past novels.

From Chance Novelist to Renowned Book

Chris Kraus started out as an artist who entered the literary world almost accidentally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, which was composed of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, converting confessional female writing from abjection into rebellion. She kept producing books, but the three subsequent fascinating and rebarbative novels did not possess the impact and rawness that the correspondence format imparted to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her position as a nonconformist creator who had become a extensive real estate holder, so there was considerable focus on real estate deals. It makes sense that she presently aims to try out fresh narrative sources, turning outward to the experiences of others, at a time when she states that Trumpian politics turns intimate literature unnecessary.

Multiple Generations, One Unescapable Past

The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, covering three generations – none able to break free from their backgrounds. We encounter the tale of Emma and Jasper, representations of the author's parents, relocating from the urban environment to rural Connecticut. There is the narrative of the author, in the character 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 lost young man by another in a locality mostly forsaken by liberal ideals only 80 miles from the protagonist's home in the Minnesota countryside.

As a reader attracted to honed writing of the kind the author herself often avoids, I was captivated by the literary tone of the opening part.

Being a reader who appreciates crafted language of the variety that the author often disregards, I was captivated by the storytelling approach of the opening segment. There is a novel degree of detail that allows space for trivial aspects, like the bucket that the young Catt pries out of frozen water at the beginning of the narrative, aided by her beloved father. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she exclaims; "a lovely toy", he answers, "the ambiguous meanings of language tumbling in their mouths like hard candy". She tells Emma's narrative with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not precisely her dream."

Letdown and Fragmentation

I was destined to be disappointed when I expected this different style could continue through the novel. The author states here that she is annoyed by the satisfaction those who appreciate polished prose have gotten from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disjunction, to the messy artistic approach she has in common with her hero Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her past books returns in the central part. Catt is trying to renovate three dozen dilapidated units in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while traveling between two different states, failing to help Paul manage his alcohol use. She feels helpless as her spouse transitions between poorly supported positions as an addiction therapist in a environment propelled by the anger and fear that underpins an electoral success. Multiple pages are devoted about the protagonist facing cancellation on Twitter, her professional designation altered from "writer" to "landlord" on a reference site. 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 departing the state, "she might be able to learn something about an the United States that her Twitter detractors would be unable to grasp, would not even see".

The Killing Story

Thus we arrive to the homicide in question – and the titular day spent by the deceased with the murderer and his friends. Kraus has compelling foundational content, and details moment by moment what transpired when a man named Brandon came to see Brittney after connecting via an application where she marketed explicit images. He anticipated intimacy but seems affably to have spent the day in the company of her associates, mooching around getting his car mended and paying for snacks and drugs, before being shot by Brittney's partner a man named Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has often been institutionalized for aggressive outbursts.

Fascination and Incompletion

Catt develops an obsession by the narrative, and I was fascinated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards responsible documentation and daring boundary-pushing tussle in this section. But I'd have liked her to explore more thoroughly her own obsessions here. The standout figure is Brittney, who comes alive partially because of Catt's identification with her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual spiraling out of control in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus notes that Catt converses with Brittney in prison, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. The whole section feels oddly unfinished, to the degree that her narrative ends almost mid-par