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The Four Spent the Day Together is populated with protagonists seeking new beginnings, attempting to leave behind substance abuse or toxic relationships, only to find hope curdling into aggression. Chris Kraus frequently uses the phrase "fresh start", rendering it willfully cynical through constant reiteration. Sentences like "He could make a fresh start" and "They decided to make a fresh start" recur in the narrative. And yet, she appears to be undertaking her personal new beginning, since this appears a novel form of writing – documentarian, truly literary. However it turns out to be laden with the same dilemmas and aesthetics as her previous works.

From Chance Novelist to Cult Classic

Kraus started out as an visual artist who transitioned to writing somewhat by chance with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, made up of letters to an unreceptive lover, converting personal female narrative from humiliation into rebellion. She continued writing, but the three subsequent compelling and abrasive novels did not possess the power and directness that the letter form imparted to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her position as a maverick maker who had become a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was significant attention on housing investments. It makes sense that she presently aims to explore new kinds of material, turning outward to external narratives, at a moment when she claims that Trumpian politics renders personal narrative unnecessary.

Multiple Generations, One Unescapable Past

The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, covering three generations – all unable to escape their pasts. The book includes the narrative about characters Emma and Jasper, representations of the author's parents, transitioning from the urban environment to a pastoral setting. There is the account of Kraus, in the guise of a figure named Catt Greene, confronting the belated success of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse her husband Paul. The third thread involves the narrative of a homicide of one directionless individual by another in a community mostly forsaken by forward-thinking policies only a brief drive from Catt's rural residence in rural Minnesota.

From my perspective as a reader attracted to polished prose of the type Kraus often avoids, I was enchanted by the narrative style of the opening part.

Being a reader who appreciates honed writing of the kind that Kraus herself often disregards, I was won over by the literary tone of the first section. It exhibits a fresh level of observation that accommodates small details, like the pail that the protagonist as a child pries out of frozen water at the start of the story, helped by her beloved father. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she declares; "a great plaything", he replies, "the elliptical meanings of words circulating in their speech like sweet treats". The author narrates Emma's story with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not precisely her dream."

Frustration and Disruption

I was bound to become frustrated when I hoped this fresh tone could last out the book. The author states here that she is annoyed by the pleasure readers like me have gotten from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disjunction, to the untidy aesthetics she shares with her idol Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her past books reasserts itself in the second segment. Catt is trying to renovate 36 run-down apartments in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while shuttling between two different states, unable to aid Paul manage his alcohol use. She experiences powerlessness as her spouse moves between underfunded jobs as an substance abuse counselor in a world propelled by the anger and fear that underpins an electoral success. A significant portion discusses about the protagonist facing cancellation on Twitter, her listed profession modified from "novelist" to "landlord" on a reference site. She still gives the impression to be overly concerned about this. On one occasion she says that she's investigating the murder so that before leaving Minnesota, "she might be able to learn something about an the nation that her social media opponents would be unable to grasp, would not even see".

The Killing Story

So then we come to the homicide in question – and the titular day passed by the victim with the murderer and his associates. 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 anticipated intimacy but seems affably to have spent the day with her companions, loitering having his vehicle repaired and paying for snacks and drugs, before being killed by gunfire by her romantic interest Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has often been institutionalized for fits of anger.

Obsession and Unfinished Business

The protagonist becomes fixated by the story, and I found myself captivated by the way that her twin drives towards accurate chronicling and daring boundary-pushing wrestle in this part. However, I would have preferred her to go further into her individual preoccupations here. The most interesting character is Brittney herself, who gains dimension partially because of the protagonist's connection to her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman derailing in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus notes that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in prison, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. The complete segment feels curiously unresolved, to the degree that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par