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The Four Spent the Day Together features characters chasing after clean slates, struggling to escape addictions or abusive marriages, only to find hope curdling into aggression. Chris Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "fresh start", making it intentionally weary through recurring use. Phrases such as "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They opted for a clean break" are scattered across the story. Meanwhile, Kraus herself seems to be making her individual reinvention, as this presents as a different type of work – observational, genuinely novelistic. But then it proves to be filled with the recurring issues and aesthetics as past novels.

From Accidental Writer to Iconic Work

Kraus was originally an artist who became a writer almost accidentally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, which was composed of missives to a distant beloved, converting confessional female writing from abjection into rebellion. She kept producing books, but the next trio of engaging and challenging novels missed the power and directness that the correspondence format imparted to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her identity as a renegade artist who had become a major property owner, so there was significant attention on housing investments. It follows that she presently aims to try out different types of content, directing her gaze to the experiences of others, at a moment when she states that contemporary political climate renders personal narrative redundant.

Three Generations, One Unescapable Past

The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, encompassing multiple eras – all unable to escape their histories. There is the tale of characters Emma and Jasper, representations of the author's parents, relocating from the Bronx to the Connecticut countryside. Additionally the story of Kraus herself, in the character of protagonist Catt Greene, confronting the belated success of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her addict husband her husband Paul. Finally the narrative of a homicide of one lost young man by another in a community long abandoned by liberal ideals only 80 miles from Catt's rural residence in rural Minnesota.

For this reader drawn to polished prose of the type the author herself often avoids, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the first section.

Being a reader who appreciates crafted language of the kind that Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was seduced by the storytelling approach of the first section. It possesses a fresh level of observation that allows space for small details, like the bucket that the youthful Catt frees from the ice at the opening of the book, helped by her cherished parent. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she says; "a great plaything", he answers, "the ambiguous meanings of language circulating in their speech like hard candy". She tells Emma's narrative with interest and closeness. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not hers, exactly."

Letdown and Fragmentation

I was fated to feel let down when I wished this fresh tone could last out the book. The author states here that she dislikes the pleasure readers like me have gotten from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to fragmentation, to the untidy aesthetics she shares with her idol Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her earlier works reasserts itself in the second segment. The protagonist is working on refurbishing three dozen dilapidated units in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while traveling between two different states, unable to aid Paul control his drinking. She feels helpless as Paul transitions between low-resource employment as an substance abuse counselor in a world propelled by the rage and anxiety that powers a political win. A significant portion discusses about Catt being cancelled on social media, her occupation changed from "author" to "landlord" on a reference site. She still gives the impression to invest excessive emotion about this. On one occasion she says that she's researching the homicide so that before departing the state, "she might be able to learn something about an America that her Twitter detractors would fail to comprehend, would not even see".

The Killing Story

Then we reach to the murder itself – and the titular day experienced by the deceased with the murderer and his companions. The author possesses compelling foundational content, and knows hour by hour what transpired when Brandon came to visit Brittney after meeting her on an app where she marketed explicit images. He sought a sexual encounter but seems amiably to have occupied the day in the company of her associates, wandering about fixing his automobile 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 violent rage.

Preoccupation and Open Ends

Catt gets obsessed by the account, and I found myself captivated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards responsible documentation and audacious rule-breaking tussle in this section. However, I would have preferred her to explore more thoroughly her individual preoccupations here. The most interesting character is the character Brittney, who becomes vivid partially because of Catt seeing herself in her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman derailing in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus tells us that Catt speaks to Brittney in prison, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. The whole section feels curiously unresolved, to the degree that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par