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The Four Spent the Day Together features individuals pursuing new beginnings, attempting to leave behind drugs or abusive marriages, only to find hope curdling into conflict. The author often employs the phrase "clean slate", making it deliberately jaded through its repetitions. Phrases such as "He could make a fresh start" and "They decided to make a fresh start" recur in the narrative. Meanwhile, she is embarking on her own fresh start, as this presents as a new kind of book – documentarian, authentically narrative. However it proves to be filled with the same dilemmas and aesthetics as earlier books.

From Unplanned Author to Renowned Book

Chris Kraus started out as an visual artist who transitioned to writing somewhat by chance with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, structured as epistles to an unresponsive love interest, elevating personal female narrative from humiliation into assassination. She persisted as a writer, but the following three fascinating and rebarbative novels did not possess the impact and rawness that the letter form imparted to the voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her role as a nonconformist creator who had evolved into a major property owner, so there was considerable focus on real estate deals. It is logical that she currently desires to try out different types of content, directing her gaze to the experiences of others, at a moment when she asserts that Trumpian politics makes confessional writing redundant.

Three Generations, One Unescapable Past

The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, encompassing several time periods – each trapped by their backgrounds. There is the narrative about a couple named Emma and Jasper, based on Kraus's parents, transitioning from the Bronx to a pastoral setting. Then there is the account of Kraus, in the guise of protagonist Catt Greene, confronting the belated success of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her partner struggling with addiction her husband Paul. Finally the story of the murder of one directionless individual by another in a town mostly forsaken by liberal ideals only 80 miles from Catt's rural residence in rural Minnesota.

From my perspective as a reader attracted to polished prose of the type the author herself often avoids, I was captivated by the narrative style of the initial segment.

Being a reader who appreciates crafted language of the kind that Kraus herself often disregards, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the first section. There is a fresh level of observation that accommodates minutiae, like the container that the young Catt pries out of frozen water at the opening of the book, assisted by her cherished parent. "Look, an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a great plaything", he answers, "the nuanced interpretations of terms rolling around in their mouths like hard candy". The author narrates Emma's narrative with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not hers, exactly."

Disappointment and Disjunction

I was destined to be disappointed when I hoped this fresh tone could continue through the novel. The author states here that she is annoyed by the enjoyment those who appreciate polished prose have gotten from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disruption, to the messy artistic approach she shares with her inspiration Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her previous novels returns in the central part. The protagonist is working on refurbishing three dozen dilapidated units in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while moving between Minnesota and LA, unable to aid Paul curb his addiction. She is overwhelmed as her spouse transitions between underfunded jobs as an addiction therapist in a environment propelled by the hostility and dread that underpins an electoral success. A significant portion discusses about Catt being cancelled on social media, her listed profession modified from "author" to "landlord" on a reference site. The author still appears to invest excessive emotion about this. On one occasion she remarks that she's investigating the murder so that before leaving Minnesota, "she might be able to learn something about an the United States that her Twitter detractors would not understand, would not even perceive".

The Murder Narrative

So then we come to the homicide in question – and the referenced day experienced by the deceased with the perpetrator and his associates. The author possesses compelling foundational content, and knows hour by hour what happened when Brandon came to visit Brittney after connecting via an application where she offered adult photos. He anticipated intimacy but seems affably to have spent the day in the company of her associates, mooching around fixing his automobile and funding treats and narcotics, before being murdered by her romantic interest Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has often been institutionalized for violent rage.

Fascination and Incompletion

The protagonist becomes fixated by the narrative, and I was intrigued by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards responsible documentation and audacious rule-breaking clash in this segment. However, I would have preferred her to delve deeper into her personal fixations here. The standout figure is the character Brittney, who becomes vivid partly through Catt seeing herself in her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual going off the rails in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus tells us that Catt speaks to Brittney in detention, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. The complete segment feels curiously unresolved, to the degree that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par