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The Four Spent the Day Together is populated with individuals chasing after clean slates, struggling to escape substance abuse or abusive marriages, only to see hope turn into aggression. Chris Kraus often employs the phrase "fresh start", rendering it intentionally weary through its repetitions. Phrases such as "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They decided to make a fresh start" recur in the text. At the same time, Kraus herself seems to be making her individual reinvention, since this seems a new kind of book – documentarian, authentically narrative. Yet it turns out to be laden with the recurring issues and styles as her previous works.

From Unplanned Author to Cult Classic

The writer was originally an visual artist who became a writer somewhat by chance with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, made up of letters to an unreceptive lover, converting intimate women's literature from humiliation into assassination. She continued writing, but the next trio of fascinating and rebarbative novels did not possess the power and directness that the correspondence format imparted to the tone of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her position as a maverick maker who had turned into a extensive real estate holder, so there was significant attention on housing investments. It follows that she now wants to explore fresh narrative sources, looking outwards to other people's stories, at a time when she asserts that Trumpian politics makes confessional writing obsolete.

Three Generations, Shared Inescapable History

The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, spanning multiple eras – none able to break free from their pasts. There is the tale of Emma and Jasper, based on Kraus's parents, transitioning from the Bronx to rural Connecticut. Then there is the account of Kraus, in the persona of a figure named Catt Greene, confronting the belated success of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction her husband Paul. And there is the narrative of a homicide of one troubled youth by another in a locality mostly forsaken by forward-thinking policies only a short distance from the protagonist's home in a remote part of Minnesota.

As a reader attracted to honed writing of the sort Kraus typically rejects, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the first section.

As a reader who appreciates honed writing of the style that Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was captivated by the literary tone of the first section. There is a fresh level of observation that allows space for small details, like the pail that the young Catt frees from the ice at the beginning of the narrative, assisted by her adored dad. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she declares; "a lovely toy", he responds, "the ambiguous meanings of language rolling around in their mouths like piece candy". She tells the tale of Emma with curiosity and intimacy. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not hers, exactly."

Letdown and Fragmentation

I was bound to become frustrated when I hoped this fresh tone could persist to the end. Kraus says here that she dislikes the pleasure readers like me have gotten from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to fragmentation, to the unpolished style she echoes from her inspiration author Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her past books comes back in the central part. Catt Greene is working on refurbishing multiple decrepit residences in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while traveling between the Midwest and the West Coast, unable to aid Paul control his drinking. She feels helpless as Paul transitions between poorly supported positions as an substance abuse counselor in a environment propelled by the rage and anxiety that drives a political win. There are several pages about Catt's social media ostracism on social media, her professional designation altered from "author" to "property owner" on a reference site. The author still appears to care a little too much about this. On one occasion she states that she's researching the homicide so that before exiting the region, "she might be able to learn something about an the nation that her Twitter detractors would fail to comprehend, would not even perceive".

The Killing Story

Then we reach to the homicide in question – and the referenced day spent by the murdered individual with the murderer and his companions. Kraus utilizes great source material, and knows hour by hour what happened when the victim Brandon came to see Brittney after meeting her on an app where she offered adult photos. He anticipated intimacy but seems amiably to have occupied the day alongside her friends, wandering about fixing his automobile and funding treats and narcotics, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's partner Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has often been institutionalized for aggressive outbursts.

Obsession and Unfinished Business

Catt develops an obsession by the account, and I was intrigued by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards responsible documentation and audacious rule-breaking wrestle in this part. Yet I wished her to go further into her individual preoccupations here. The compelling persona is the character Brittney, who becomes vivid in part due to the protagonist's connection to her – another bright, bullied girl derailing in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus notes that Catt speaks to Brittney in jail, but she fails to enact these dialogues. This entire part feels strangely incomplete, to the degree that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par