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The Four Spent the Day Together centers on protagonists seeking new beginnings, attempting to leave behind substance abuse or harmful partnerships, only to find hope curdling into aggression. The author frequently uses the phrase "clean slate", rendering it intentionally weary through recurring use. Sentences like "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They chose to begin anew" are scattered across the story. Meanwhile, Kraus herself seems to be making her individual reinvention, as this presents as a novel form of writing – fact-based, genuinely novelistic. However it proves to be laden with the recurring issues and styles as past novels.

From Accidental Writer to Cult Classic

Chris Kraus started out as an visual artist who entered the literary world somewhat by chance with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, which was composed of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, transforming confessional female writing from self-debasement into rebellion. She kept producing books, but the three subsequent engaging and challenging novels lacked the impact and rawness that the letter form imparted to the voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her identity as a renegade artist who had turned into a extensive real estate holder, so there was significant attention on housing investments. It makes sense that she presently aims to experiment with new kinds of material, directing her gaze to other people's stories, at a time when she states that Trumpian politics renders personal narrative obsolete.

Multiple Generations, Collective Unavoidable Background

The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, covering three generations – each trapped by their histories. The book includes the story of Emma and Jasper, versions of her own mother and father, moving from the urban environment to a pastoral setting. There is the narrative of the author, in the character of a figure named Catt Greene, confronting the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her addict husband Paul. The third thread involves the story of the murder of one troubled youth by another in a locality largely deserted by liberal ideals only 80 miles from Catt's cottage in a remote part of Minnesota.

From my perspective as a reader fond of honed writing of the sort Kraus often avoids, I was seduced by the narrative style of the first section.

As a reader who appreciates crafted language of the kind that Kraus tends to eschew, I was won over by the novelistic voice of the opening segment. It exhibits a fresh level of observation that makes room for small details, like the pail that the youthful Catt pries out of frozen water at the beginning of the narrative, aided by her cherished parent. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she declares; "a great plaything", he responds, "the elliptical meanings of words rolling around in their mouths like sweet treats". Kraus writes Emma's story with inquiry and familiarity. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not hers, exactly."

Disappointment and Disjunction

I was fated to feel let down when I expected this different style could last out the book. Kraus notes here that she dislikes the enjoyment readers like me have derived from I Love Dick; she's committed to disjunction, to the untidy aesthetics she shares with her idol Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her earlier works returns in the middle section. Catt Greene is attempting to do up multiple decrepit residences in the city's most challenging districts while moving between Minnesota and LA, unable to aid Paul curb his addiction. She experiences powerlessness as Paul transitions between low-resource employment as an recovery specialist in a world driven by the hostility and dread that underpins an electoral success. A significant portion discusses about Catt's social media ostracism on Twitter, her listed profession modified from "novelist" to "real estate holder" on the online encyclopedia. She still gives the impression to care a little too much about this. At one point she remarks that she's researching the homicide so that before departing the state, "she may grasp something about an the United States that her online critics would not understand, would not even perceive".

The Homicide Account

Thus we arrive to the actual killing – and the eponymous day passed by the deceased with the perpetrator and his companions. Kraus utilizes great source material, and details moment by moment what happened when Brandon came to visit Brittney after connecting via an application where she offered adult photos. He was hoping for sex but seems affably to have spent the day in the company of her associates, wandering about having his vehicle repaired and covering the cost of food and substances, before being shot by Brittney's partner Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has repeatedly received inpatient care for aggressive outbursts.

Preoccupation and Open Ends

The protagonist becomes fixated by the narrative, and I was intrigued by the way that her twin drives towards ethical reporting and audacious rule-breaking clash in this segment. But I'd have liked her to go further into her own obsessions here. The standout figure is Brittney herself, who becomes vivid partly through Catt's identification with her – another bright, bullied girl going off the rails in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus tells us that Catt converses with Brittney in detention, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The whole section feels oddly unfinished, to the point that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par