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The Four Spent the Day Together features protagonists chasing after clean slates, struggling to escape addictions or toxic relationships, only to see hope turn into aggression. Chris Kraus frequently uses the phrase "new beginning", making it deliberately jaded through recurring use. Examples include "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They opted for a clean break" are scattered across the text. And yet, Kraus herself is embarking on her individual reinvention, as this appears a novel form of writing – documentarian, truly literary. But then it reveals itself to be packed with the familiar conflicts and styles as past novels.

From Accidental Writer to Renowned Book

The writer began as an artist who entered the literary world unintentionally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, structured as letters to an unreceptive lover, converting confessional female writing from humiliation into rebellion. She kept producing books, but the following three engaging and challenging novels lacked the shock and immediacy that the correspondence format infused into the voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her position as a maverick maker who had become a extensive real estate holder, so there was much discussion on real estate deals. It makes sense that she presently aims to experiment with new kinds of material, looking outwards to external narratives, at a period in which she claims that contemporary political climate makes confessional writing unnecessary.

Several Eras, Shared Inescapable History

The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, spanning several time periods – all unable to escape their histories. There is the tale of characters Emma and Jasper, based on her own mother and father, transitioning from the Bronx to the Connecticut countryside. Additionally the story of Kraus herself, in the character of a figure named Catt Greene, grappling with the belated success of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her addict husband her husband Paul. Finally the story of the murder of one troubled youth by another in a locality long abandoned by progressive politics only a brief drive from Catt's cottage in rural Minnesota.

As a reader fond of polished prose of the sort Kraus herself typically rejects, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the opening part.

As a reader who favors precise prose of the variety that Kraus tends to eschew, I was captivated by the literary tone of the opening segment. It exhibits a new quality of attentiveness that allows space for trivial aspects, like the bucket that the youthful Catt pries out of frozen water at the start of the story, aided by her adored dad. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she declares; "a lovely toy", he answers, "the elliptical meanings of words rolling around in their mouths like sweet treats". Kraus writes the tale of Emma with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not precisely her dream."

Disappointment and Disjunction

I was bound to become frustrated when I hoped this new voice could last out the book. The author states here that she is annoyed by the pleasure audiences such as myself have gotten from I Love Dick; she's devoted to fragmentation, to the untidy aesthetics she shares with her inspiration Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her earlier works returns in the second segment. Catt is working on refurbishing three dozen dilapidated units in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while moving between Minnesota and LA, failing to help her husband control his drinking. She feels helpless as Paul moves between poorly supported positions as an recovery specialist in a world propelled by the anger and fear that underpins Trump's victory. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt being cancelled on social media, her professional designation altered from "author" to "real estate holder" on Wikipedia. Kraus still seems to care a little too much about this. At one point she states that she's researching the homicide so that before leaving Minnesota, "she may grasp something about an the United States that her social media opponents would be unable to grasp, would not even see".

The Murder Narrative

Then we reach to the murder itself – and the referenced day spent by the victim with the killer and his companions. The author possesses great source material, and knows hour by hour what occurred as a man named Brandon came to see Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she offered adult photos. He sought a sexual encounter but seems amiably to have occupied the day with her companions, wandering about getting his car mended and covering the cost of food and substances, before being shot by her romantic interest Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has frequently been hospitalised for aggressive outbursts.

Fascination and Incompletion

The protagonist becomes fixated by the story, and I found myself captivated by the way that her twin drives towards responsible documentation and reckless transgression clash in this segment. But I'd have liked her to go further into her personal fixations here. The compelling persona is Brittney herself, who comes alive partly through the protagonist's connection to her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman derailing in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus tells us that Catt speaks to Brittney in prison, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The whole section feels oddly unfinished, to the degree that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par