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The Four Spent the Day Together is populated with individuals pursuing clean slates, trying to break free from substance abuse or harmful partnerships, only to see hope turn into conflict. The author often employs the phrase "clean slate", making it intentionally weary through recurring use. Sentences like "He aimed to start over" and "They decided to make a fresh start" appear throughout the story. And yet, Kraus herself appears to be undertaking her own fresh start, since this seems a novel form of writing – fact-based, authentically narrative. Yet it turns out to be packed with the same dilemmas and approaches as past novels.

From Unplanned Author to Iconic Work

Chris Kraus was originally an artist who transitioned to writing somewhat by chance with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, made up of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, elevating confessional female writing from self-debasement into assassination. She kept producing books, but the three subsequent engaging and challenging novels did not possess the impact and rawness that the correspondence format brought to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her identity as a maverick maker who had become a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was significant attention on real estate deals. It follows that she now wants to experiment with new kinds of material, directing her gaze to the experiences of others, at a moment when she asserts that contemporary political climate renders personal narrative unnecessary.

Several Eras, One Unescapable Past

The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, covering three generations – none able to break free from their backgrounds. The book includes the story of a couple named Emma and Jasper, based on Kraus's parents, transitioning from the Bronx to rural Connecticut. Then there is the narrative of the author, in the character of Catt Greene, reckoning with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her addict husband Paul. The third thread involves the account of a killing of one directionless individual by another in a locality long abandoned by forward-thinking policies only a short distance from the protagonist's home in the Minnesota countryside.

As a reader fond of honed writing of the kind Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was captivated by the literary tone of the initial segment.

As someone who reads drawn to honed writing of the variety that the author usually avoids, I was captivated by the literary tone of the opening segment. There is a fresh level of observation that makes room for minutiae, like the pail that the protagonist as a child pries out of frozen water at the start of the story, aided by her beloved father. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she declares; "a nice toy", he replies, "the ambiguous meanings of language tumbling in their mouths like sweet treats". The author narrates the tale of Emma with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not precisely her dream."

Letdown and Fragmentation

I was destined to be disappointed when I hoped this different style could last out the book. The author states here that she dislikes the enjoyment those who appreciate polished prose have taken from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disjunction, to the untidy aesthetics she has in common with her idol Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her past books returns in the central part. Catt is trying to renovate multiple decrepit residences in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while moving between the Midwest and the West Coast, unable to aid her husband control his drinking. She experiences powerlessness as Paul cycles through low-resource employment as an addiction therapist in a environment driven by the anger and fear that underpins Trump's victory. A significant portion discusses about Catt's social media ostracism on a platform, her occupation changed from "author" to "property owner" on a reference site. Kraus still seems to care a little too much about this. In a moment she remarks that she's investigating the murder so that before leaving Minnesota, "she may grasp something about an the United States that her Twitter detractors would not understand, would not even perceive".

The Killing Story

Then we reach to the murder itself – and the referenced day passed by the victim with the murderer and his friends. Kraus utilizes excellent raw material, and knows hour by hour what happened when Brandon came to visit Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she sold sex pictures. He sought a sexual encounter but seems affably to have spent the day with her companions, wandering about fixing his automobile and covering the cost of food and substances, before being shot by Brittney's partner Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has frequently been hospitalised for violent rage.

Fascination and Incompletion

The protagonist becomes fixated by the narrative, and I was fascinated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards responsible documentation and daring boundary-pushing wrestle in this part. However, I would have preferred her to go further into her personal fixations here. The most interesting character is Brittney, who gains dimension in part due to the protagonist's connection to her – another bright, bullied girl spiraling out of control in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus tells us that Catt speaks to Brittney in prison, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The whole section feels curiously unresolved, to the extent that her narrative ends almost mid-par