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The Four Spent the Day Together features individuals seeking clean slates, attempting to leave behind addictions or abusive marriages, only to witness hope devolve into aggression. The author frequently uses the phrase "new beginning", rendering it intentionally weary through constant reiteration. Sentences like "He aimed to start over" and "They decided to make a fresh start" are scattered across the text. At the same time, Kraus herself seems to be making her individual reinvention, as this appears a new kind of book – documentarian, authentically narrative. Yet it turns out to be packed with the familiar conflicts and styles as her previous works.

From Chance Novelist to Renowned Book

Chris Kraus was originally an artist who transitioned to writing unintentionally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, made up of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, transforming intimate women's literature from self-debasement into assassination. She kept producing books, but the following three engaging and challenging novels did not possess the impact and rawness that the epistolary style imparted to the tone 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 property transactions. It makes sense that she presently aims to try out different types of content, turning outward to the experiences of others, at a time when she claims that contemporary political climate makes confessional writing redundant.

Several Eras, Shared Inescapable History

The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, spanning several time periods – none able to break free from their backgrounds. We encounter the story of Emma and Jasper, versions of her own mother and father, moving from the Bronx to a pastoral setting. There is the story of Kraus herself, in the character of a figure named Catt Greene, grappling 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 lost young man by another in a town largely deserted by liberal ideals only a brief drive from Catt's rural residence in rural Minnesota.

For this reader attracted to refined literature of the kind Kraus tends to eschew, I was seduced by the narrative style of the initial segment.

Being a reader who appreciates honed writing of the kind that Kraus tends to eschew, I was seduced by the literary tone of the initial part. It possesses a novel degree of detail that allows space for minutiae, like the pail that the protagonist as a child pries out of frozen water at the beginning of the narrative, aided by her adored dad. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she declares; "a nice toy", he replies, "the elliptical meanings of words rolling around in their mouths like piece candy". She tells Emma's narrative with interest and closeness. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not hers, exactly."

Disappointment and Disjunction

I was destined to be disappointed when I expected this new voice could persist to the end. The author states here that she is annoyed by the enjoyment those who appreciate polished prose have taken from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disruption, to the unpolished style she has in common with her idol Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her earlier works reasserts itself in the middle section. Catt is working on refurbishing three dozen dilapidated units in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while traveling between two different states, failing to help her husband curb his addiction. She experiences powerlessness as Paul transitions between low-resource employment as an substance abuse counselor in a society driven by the anger and fear that drives Trump's victory. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt being cancelled on Twitter, her occupation changed from "author" to "property owner" on Wikipedia. She still gives the impression to be overly concerned about this. On one occasion she states that she's looking into the killing so that before exiting the region, "she might be able to learn something about an the United States that her social media opponents would fail to comprehend, would not even perceive".

The Killing Story

So then we come to the homicide in question – and the titular day experienced by the murdered individual with the killer and his companions. Kraus has compelling foundational content, and details moment by moment what transpired when a man named Brandon came to meet Brittney after meeting her on an app where she sold sex pictures. He was hoping for sex but appears congenially to have passed the day in the company of her associates, loitering getting his car mended and paying for snacks and drugs, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's partner a man named Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has frequently been hospitalised for fits of anger.

Fascination and Incompletion

Catt gets obsessed by the account, and I found myself captivated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards responsible documentation and reckless transgression clash in this segment. However, I would have preferred her to explore more thoroughly her own obsessions here. The most interesting character is Brittney herself, who gains dimension partly through the protagonist's connection to her – another bright, bullied girl derailing in a struggling, neglected community. The author informs us that Catt converses with Brittney in detention, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The whole section feels strangely incomplete, to the extent that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par