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The Four Spent the Day Together is populated with protagonists pursuing new beginnings, trying to break free from substance abuse or toxic relationships, only to witness hope devolve into conflict. Kraus frequently uses the phrase "clean slate", making it deliberately jaded through recurring use. Examples include "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They opted for a clean break" recur in the text. And yet, she appears to be undertaking her own fresh start, since this appears a different type of work – observational, truly literary. However it turns out to be laden with the same dilemmas and approaches as past novels.

From Accidental Writer to Renowned Book

Chris Kraus was originally an visual artist who became a writer almost accidentally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, made up of missives to a distant beloved, transforming intimate women's literature from humiliation into rebellion. She kept producing books, but the next trio of compelling and abrasive novels did not possess the power and directness that the correspondence format brought to the tone of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her identity as a renegade artist who had become a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was significant attention on property transactions. It makes sense that she now wants to try out new kinds of material, directing her gaze to external narratives, at a period in which she asserts that contemporary political climate turns intimate literature redundant.

Three Generations, Collective Unavoidable Background

The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, spanning multiple eras – each trapped by their histories. The book includes the story of characters Emma and Jasper, representations of the author's parents, moving from the New York borough to a pastoral setting. Additionally the story of Kraus herself, in the character of a figure named Catt Greene, grappling with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse Paul. And there is the story of the murder of one lost young man by another in a community largely deserted by forward-thinking policies only a short distance from Catt's cottage in the Minnesota countryside.

For this reader fond of polished prose of the sort the author herself typically rejects, I was enchanted by the narrative style of the opening part.

As someone who reads who appreciates honed writing of the variety that Kraus often disregards, I was seduced by the storytelling approach of the first section. It exhibits a fresh level of observation that accommodates small details, like the pail that the young Catt dislodges from ice at the opening of the book, aided by her cherished parent. "I found an ice toy!" she says; "a great plaything", he responds, "the nuanced interpretations of terms tumbling in their mouths like hard candy". The author narrates Emma's story with interest and closeness. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not hers, exactly."

Disappointment and Disjunction

I was fated to feel let down when I expected this new voice could continue through the novel. Kraus says here that she is annoyed by the enjoyment audiences such as myself have taken from I Love Dick; she's committed to fragmentation, to the untidy aesthetics she echoes from her idol Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her past books reasserts itself in the central part. Catt is attempting to do up 36 run-down apartments in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while shuttling between Minnesota and LA, unable to aid Paul curb his addiction. She experiences powerlessness as her spouse transitions between poorly supported positions as an addiction therapist in a environment driven by the rage and anxiety that underpins Trump's victory. A significant portion discusses about Catt being cancelled on a platform, her listed profession modified from "novelist" to "property owner" on the online encyclopedia. The author still appears to be overly concerned about this. In a moment she says that she's investigating the murder so that before departing the state, "she might be able to learn something about an the nation that her online critics would fail to comprehend, would not even see".

The Killing Story

Then we reach to the actual killing – and the titular day passed by the deceased with the perpetrator and his friends. Kraus utilizes excellent raw material, and knows hour by hour what occurred as the victim Brandon came to visit Brittney after connecting via an application where she sold sex pictures. He anticipated intimacy but appears congenially to have passed the day in the company of her associates, loitering getting his car mended and funding treats and narcotics, before being murdered by her romantic interest Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has frequently been hospitalised for fits of anger.

Fascination and Incompletion

The protagonist becomes fixated by the account, and I was intrigued by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards responsible documentation and audacious rule-breaking wrestle in this part. But I'd have liked her to go further into her personal fixations here. The standout figure is the character Brittney, who becomes vivid partly through the protagonist's connection to her – another bright, bullied girl going off the rails in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus tells us that Catt converses with Brittney in detention, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. The complete segment feels strangely incomplete, to the point that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par