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The Four Spent the Day Together features protagonists seeking clean slates, struggling to escape drugs or toxic relationships, only to find hope curdling into violence. The author repeatedly invokes the phrase "fresh start", making it willfully cynical through constant reiteration. Phrases such as "He aimed to start over" and "They chose to begin anew" are scattered across the story. At the same time, she appears to be undertaking her individual reinvention, as this presents as a new kind of book – observational, genuinely novelistic. But then it reveals itself to be laden with the recurring issues and aesthetics as earlier books.

From Accidental Writer to Iconic Work

Chris Kraus started out as an creative who became a writer almost accidentally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, structured as epistles to an unresponsive love interest, elevating personal female narrative from abjection into assassination. She continued writing, but the following three compelling and abrasive novels did not possess the shock and immediacy that the letter form brought to the tone of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her role as a maverick maker who had become a extensive real estate holder, so there was significant attention on real estate deals. It makes sense that she now wants to explore different types of content, looking outwards to external narratives, at a time when she asserts that Trumpian politics turns intimate literature redundant.

Several Eras, Shared Inescapable History

The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, encompassing three generations – none able to break free from their pasts. We encounter the tale of characters Emma and Jasper, versions of Kraus's parents, moving from the urban environment to rural Connecticut. Then there is the narrative of the author, in the character of protagonist Catt Greene, confronting the belated success of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her substance-dependent spouse her husband Paul. Finally the narrative of a homicide of one lost young man by another in a community long abandoned by progressive politics only 80 miles from Catt's cottage in rural Minnesota.

As a reader drawn to honed writing of the kind Kraus often avoids, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the initial segment.

As a reader who appreciates precise prose of the style that the author usually avoids, I was captivated by the literary tone of the opening segment. It exhibits a new quality of attentiveness that makes room for trivial aspects, like the bucket that the youthful Catt pries out of frozen water at the opening of the book, helped by her beloved father. "I found an ice toy!" she declares; "a lovely toy", he responds, "the elliptical meanings of words tumbling in their mouths like sweet treats". She tells Emma's narrative with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not entirely her own."

Letdown and Fragmentation

I was destined to be disappointed when I hoped this different style could persist to the end. The author states here that she resents the satisfaction those who appreciate polished prose have derived from I Love Dick; she's devoted to fragmentation, to the unpolished style she echoes from her idol writer Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her past books reasserts itself in the middle section. The protagonist is working on refurbishing three dozen dilapidated units in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while moving between Minnesota and LA, unable to aid Paul manage his alcohol use. She is overwhelmed as her spouse transitions between underfunded jobs as an recovery specialist in a society propelled by the rage and anxiety that underpins Trump's victory. A significant portion discusses about Catt's social media ostracism on a platform, her listed profession modified from "writer" to "landlord" on the online encyclopedia. She still gives the impression to be overly concerned about this. On one occasion she says that she's researching the homicide so that before leaving Minnesota, "she may grasp something about an the nation that her Twitter detractors would be unable to grasp, would overlook entirely".

The Murder Narrative

Thus we arrive to the actual killing – and the eponymous day experienced by the deceased with the perpetrator and his friends. The author possesses excellent raw material, and reconstructs step by step what occurred as a man named Brandon came to visit Brittney after meeting her on an app where she sold sex pictures. He was hoping for sex but seems amiably to have occupied the day alongside her friends, loitering having his vehicle repaired and paying for snacks and drugs, before being killed by gunfire by her romantic interest a man named Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has often been institutionalized for fits of anger.

Preoccupation and Open Ends

The protagonist becomes fixated by the narrative, and I found myself captivated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards accurate chronicling and daring boundary-pushing clash in this segment. Yet I wished her to go further into her individual preoccupations here. The standout figure is Brittney, who gains dimension partially because of Catt seeing herself in her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman derailing in a difficult, overlooked locality. The author informs us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in prison, but she fails to enact these dialogues. This entire part feels curiously unresolved, to the point that her narrative ends almost mid-par