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The Four Spent the Day Together features characters chasing after fresh starts, trying to break free from addictions or abusive marriages, only to see hope turn into aggression. Chris Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "new beginning", transforming it into deliberately jaded through its repetitions. Examples include "He aimed to start over" and "They decided to make a fresh start" are scattered across the text. At the same time, she seems to be making her own fresh start, because this seems a different type of work – observational, authentically narrative. However it proves to be filled with the same dilemmas and styles as earlier books.

From Accidental Writer to Iconic Work

Kraus began as an visual artist who entered the literary world somewhat by chance with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, which was composed of missives to a distant beloved, elevating personal female narrative from self-debasement into rebellion. She continued writing, but the following three fascinating and rebarbative novels did not possess the impact and rawness that the correspondence format imparted to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her identity as a maverick maker who had evolved into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was significant attention on housing investments. It follows that she presently aims to explore different types of content, looking outwards to other people's stories, at a period in which she states that Trumpian politics renders personal narrative obsolete.

Three Generations, Shared Inescapable History

The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, covering three generations – none able to break free from their backgrounds. We encounter the tale of characters Emma and Jasper, versions of Kraus's parents, relocating from the New York borough to the Connecticut countryside. Then there is the story of Kraus herself, in the guise of Catt Greene, reckoning with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction her husband Paul. The third thread involves the narrative of a homicide of one lost young man by another in a locality mostly forsaken by progressive politics only a brief drive from the protagonist's home in a remote part of Minnesota.

For this reader attracted to polished prose of the kind Kraus tends to eschew, I was seduced by the narrative style of the opening part.

As someone who reads who favors crafted language of the variety that the author usually avoids, I was seduced by the storytelling approach of the first section. There is a novel degree of detail that makes room for small details, like the bucket that the youthful Catt pries out of frozen water at the beginning of the narrative, aided by her beloved father. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she exclaims; "a nice toy", he responds, "the nuanced interpretations of terms circulating in their speech like sweet treats". Kraus writes Emma's narrative with interest and closeness. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not hers, exactly."

Letdown and Fragmentation

I was destined to be disappointed when I wished this different style could last out the book. Kraus notes here that she is annoyed by the enjoyment audiences such as myself have gotten from I Love Dick; she's committed to fragmentation, to the unpolished style she has in common with her hero Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her past books reasserts itself in the middle section. Catt is attempting to do up 36 run-down apartments in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while traveling between two different states, failing to help Paul curb his addiction. She is overwhelmed as her spouse cycles through underfunded jobs as an substance abuse counselor in a society fueled by the hostility and dread that underpins Trump's victory. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt's social media ostracism on Twitter, her occupation changed from "author" to "real estate holder" on the online encyclopedia. She still gives the impression to invest excessive emotion about this. At one point she remarks that she's researching the homicide so that before leaving Minnesota, "she might be able to learn something about an America that her Twitter detractors would be unable to grasp, would not even see".

The Killing Story

Then we reach to the actual killing – and the eponymous day spent by the deceased with the killer and his friends. Kraus utilizes great source material, and details moment by moment what happened when a man named Brandon came to visit Brittney after connecting via an application where she offered adult photos. He was hoping for sex but appears congenially to have passed the day in the company of her associates, wandering about having his vehicle repaired and paying for snacks and drugs, before being murdered by her romantic interest Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has frequently been hospitalised for violent rage.

Fascination and Incompletion

Catt gets obsessed by the narrative, and I found myself captivated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards accurate chronicling and audacious rule-breaking wrestle in this part. Yet I wished her to explore more thoroughly her individual preoccupations here. The standout figure is the character Brittney, who comes alive in part due to Catt seeing herself in her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual derailing in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus notes that Catt converses with Brittney in jail, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. The whole section feels strangely incomplete, to the point that her narrative ends almost mid-par