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The Four Spent the Day Together centers on protagonists pursuing new beginnings, struggling to escape drugs or abusive marriages, only to find hope curdling into violence. Chris Kraus often employs the phrase "fresh start", transforming it into deliberately jaded through constant reiteration. Sentences like "He aimed to start over" and "They opted for a clean break" are scattered across the narrative. And yet, the author herself appears to be undertaking her personal new beginning, since this appears a new kind of book – observational, authentically narrative. However it turns out to be laden with the same dilemmas and approaches as earlier books.

From Chance Novelist to Cult Classic

Kraus was originally an artist who became a writer somewhat by chance with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, structured as epistles to an unresponsive love interest, converting personal female narrative from self-debasement into defiance. She kept producing books, but the next trio of fascinating and rebarbative novels did not possess the shock and immediacy that the letter form infused into the narrative voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her identity as a maverick maker who had evolved into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was considerable focus on real estate deals. It makes sense that she now wants to experiment with new kinds of material, directing her gaze to other people's stories, at a time when she asserts that contemporary political climate makes confessional writing redundant.

Several Eras, One Unescapable Past

The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, encompassing several time periods – all unable to escape their pasts. We encounter the story of a couple named Emma and Jasper, representations of her own mother and father, transitioning from the New York borough to the Connecticut countryside. Additionally the narrative of the author, in the guise of protagonist Catt Greene, confronting the belated success of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her addict husband Paul. And there is the account of a killing of one directionless individual by another in a locality largely deserted by liberal ideals only 80 miles from the protagonist's home in rural Minnesota.

From my perspective as a reader attracted to refined literature of the type the author herself often avoids, I was enchanted by the novelistic voice of the opening part.

As someone who reads who favors honed writing of the variety that the author usually avoids, I was won over by the literary tone of the opening segment. It exhibits a fresh level of observation that allows space for minutiae, like the bucket that the youthful Catt frees from the ice at the opening of the book, helped by her beloved father. "I found an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a lovely toy", he answers, "the nuanced interpretations of terms tumbling in their mouths like sweet treats". Kraus writes Emma's story with interest and closeness. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not hers, exactly."

Frustration and Disruption

I was fated to feel let down when I hoped this different style could persist to the end. Kraus says here that she is annoyed by the pleasure those who appreciate polished prose have gotten from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disjunction, to the untidy aesthetics she echoes from her idol Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her earlier works returns in the second segment. Catt is working on refurbishing three dozen dilapidated units in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while shuttling between two different states, unsuccessful in assisting Paul manage his alcohol use. She is overwhelmed as Paul transitions between poorly supported positions as an substance abuse counselor in a society fueled by the anger and fear that drives Trump's victory. A significant portion discusses about the protagonist facing cancellation on social media, her professional designation altered from "author" to "property owner" on Wikipedia. The author still appears to invest excessive emotion about this. At one point she states that she's looking into the killing so that before leaving Minnesota, "she may grasp something about an the United States that her social media opponents would not understand, would not even perceive".

The Homicide Account

Thus we arrive to the homicide in question – and the eponymous day experienced by the deceased with the killer and his associates. The author possesses excellent raw material, and reconstructs step by step what transpired when Brandon came to meet Brittney after meeting her on an app where she marketed explicit images. He sought a sexual encounter but seems affably to have spent the day in the company of her associates, mooching around having his vehicle repaired and paying for snacks and drugs, before being murdered by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has frequently been hospitalised for fits of anger.

Obsession and Unfinished Business

Catt gets obsessed by the narrative, and I was intrigued by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards accurate chronicling and daring boundary-pushing wrestle in this part. Yet I wished her to delve deeper into her own obsessions here. The most interesting character is Brittney herself, who comes alive partly through the protagonist's connection to her – another bright, bullied girl derailing in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus tells us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in prison, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The whole section feels strangely incomplete, to the degree that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par