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The Four Spent the Day Together is populated with protagonists chasing after fresh starts, struggling to escape addictions or toxic relationships, only to witness hope devolve into conflict. The author often employs the phrase "fresh start", transforming it into willfully cynical through constant reiteration. Examples include "He could make a fresh start" and "They chose to begin anew" are scattered across the text. Meanwhile, she appears to be undertaking her individual reinvention, since this presents as a novel form of writing – observational, authentically narrative. However it proves to be laden with the same dilemmas and approaches as earlier books.

From Accidental Writer to Renowned Book

Chris Kraus began as an artist who became a writer almost accidentally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, structured as letters to an unreceptive lover, converting intimate women's literature from humiliation into rebellion. She kept producing books, but the three subsequent engaging and challenging novels missed the power and directness that the letter form infused into the voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her identity as a nonconformist creator who had turned into a major property owner, so there was significant attention on housing investments. It is logical that she currently desires to experiment with different types of content, turning outward to the experiences of others, at a time when she asserts 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, encompassing multiple eras – each trapped by their pasts. There is the narrative about a couple named Emma and Jasper, representations of the author's parents, moving from the New York borough to the Connecticut countryside. There is the story of Kraus herself, in the character of a figure named Catt Greene, confronting the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse a man named Paul. And there is the story of the murder of one troubled youth by another in a town long abandoned by liberal ideals only a brief drive from the protagonist's home in rural Minnesota.

For this reader attracted to polished prose of the kind Kraus tends to eschew, I was seduced by the literary tone of the first section.

As someone who reads who appreciates crafted language of the variety that Kraus often disregards, I was won over by the literary tone of the opening segment. It possesses a novel degree of detail that makes room for minutiae, like the bucket that the protagonist as a child dislodges from ice at the beginning of the narrative, assisted by her adored dad. "I found an ice toy!" she declares; "a nice toy", he replies, "the elliptical meanings of words tumbling in their mouths like sweet treats". She tells Emma's story with inquiry and familiarity. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not precisely her dream."

Letdown and Fragmentation

I was destined to be disappointed when I hoped this fresh tone could last out the book. Kraus notes here that she is annoyed by the enjoyment audiences such as myself have derived from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disjunction, to the untidy aesthetics she shares with her hero author Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her earlier works reasserts itself in the middle section. Catt is trying to renovate multiple decrepit residences in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while moving between two different states, failing to help her husband manage his alcohol use. She feels helpless as her spouse transitions between low-resource employment as an addiction therapist in a society driven by the anger and fear that drives an electoral success. There are several pages about Catt's social media ostracism on Twitter, her occupation changed from "author" to "real estate holder" on the online encyclopedia. Kraus still seems to care a little too much about this. In a moment she says that she's investigating the murder so that before leaving Minnesota, "she may grasp something about an the nation that her social media opponents would fail to comprehend, would overlook entirely".

The Killing Story

Then we reach to the homicide in question – and the eponymous day passed by the deceased with the perpetrator and his friends. The author possesses compelling foundational content, and knows hour by hour what transpired when Brandon came to see Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she offered adult photos. He anticipated intimacy but seems amiably to have occupied the day in the company of her associates, mooching around fixing his automobile and paying for snacks and drugs, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's partner a man named Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has repeatedly received inpatient care for aggressive outbursts.

Preoccupation and Open Ends

The protagonist becomes fixated by the account, and I was intrigued by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards responsible documentation and reckless transgression tussle in this section. But I'd have liked her to explore more thoroughly her personal fixations here. The most interesting character is Brittney, who comes alive partially because of the protagonist's connection to her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman spiraling out of control in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus notes that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in jail, but she fails to enact these dialogues. This entire part feels strangely incomplete, to the degree that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par