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The Four Spent the Day Together is populated with individuals seeking fresh starts, struggling to escape drugs or abusive marriages, only to see hope turn into conflict. Kraus frequently uses the phrase "clean slate", transforming it into intentionally weary through constant reiteration. Examples include "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They chose to begin anew" are scattered across the text. At the same time, she appears to be undertaking her own fresh start, since this appears a new kind of book – documentarian, authentically narrative. Yet it turns out to be laden with the recurring issues and aesthetics as her previous works.

From Unplanned Author to Iconic Work

Chris Kraus began as an artist who became a writer somewhat by chance with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, made up of missives to a distant beloved, converting confessional female writing from self-debasement into defiance. She persisted as a writer, but the next trio of fascinating and rebarbative novels missed the impact and rawness that the epistolary style imparted to the voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her identity as a renegade artist who had become a extensive real estate holder, so there was much discussion on property transactions. It makes sense that she presently aims to explore new kinds of material, looking outwards to external narratives, at a time when she states that Trumpian politics makes confessional writing unnecessary.

Several Eras, One Unescapable Past

The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, covering three generations – none able to break free from their pasts. There is the tale of a couple named Emma and Jasper, versions of Kraus's parents, transitioning from the Bronx to rural Connecticut. Then there is the account of Kraus, in the character of protagonist Catt Greene, confronting the late recognition of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her addict husband Paul. And there is the story of the murder of one troubled youth by another in a locality long abandoned by progressive politics only a short distance from the protagonist's home in rural Minnesota.

As a reader drawn to refined literature of the kind Kraus often avoids, I was seduced by the literary tone of the initial segment.

Being a reader drawn to precise prose of the kind that Kraus tends to eschew, I was won over by the storytelling approach of the opening segment. There is a novel degree of detail that allows space for minutiae, like the bucket that the youthful Catt frees from the ice at the beginning of the narrative, aided by her adored dad. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she declares; "a great plaything", he responds, "the nuanced interpretations of terms rolling around in their mouths like hard candy". The author narrates Emma's narrative with interest and closeness. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not entirely her own."

Disappointment and Disjunction

I was destined to be disappointed when I wished this new voice could persist to the end. Kraus says here that she dislikes the enjoyment readers like me have derived from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disruption, to the untidy aesthetics she shares with her hero Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her earlier works reasserts itself in the second segment. Catt is working on refurbishing 36 run-down apartments in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while traveling between the Midwest and the West Coast, unable to aid her husband control his drinking. She is overwhelmed as Paul cycles through poorly supported positions as an substance abuse counselor in a environment fueled by the anger and fear that underpins an electoral success. A significant portion discusses about Catt being cancelled on Twitter, her listed profession modified from "author" to "property owner" on a reference site. She still gives the impression to care a little too much about this. On one occasion she remarks that she's looking into the killing so that before departing the state, "she may grasp something about an the United States that her social media opponents would be unable to grasp, would not even perceive".

The Killing Story

Then we reach to the murder itself – and the referenced day passed by the victim with the killer and his companions. The author possesses great source material, and knows hour by hour what transpired when a man named Brandon came to meet Brittney after meeting her on an app where she marketed explicit images. He was hoping for sex but seems amiably to have occupied the day alongside her friends, loitering fixing his automobile and paying for snacks and drugs, before being murdered by her romantic interest Micah – a individual with mental health challenges 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 the author's conflicting impulses towards responsible documentation and audacious rule-breaking wrestle in this part. Yet I wished her to explore more thoroughly her own obsessions here. The compelling persona is Brittney herself, who becomes vivid partially because of the protagonist's connection to her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual derailing in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus notes that Catt speaks to Brittney in detention, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. The complete segment feels oddly unfinished, to the degree that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par