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The Four Spent the Day Together features characters seeking new beginnings, trying to break free from addictions or abusive marriages, only to find hope curdling into violence. Chris Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "fresh start", making it intentionally weary through recurring use. Sentences like "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They decided to make a fresh start" recur in the story. And yet, she appears to be undertaking her own fresh start, as this appears a different type of work – observational, genuinely novelistic. Yet it proves to be packed with the recurring issues and approaches as her previous works.

From Unplanned Author to Renowned Book

Chris Kraus was originally an creative who became a writer almost accidentally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, which was composed of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, elevating intimate women's literature from abjection into rebellion. She persisted as a writer, but the three subsequent engaging and challenging novels missed the impact and rawness that the correspondence format infused into the voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her role as a maverick maker who had turned into a major property owner, so there was significant attention on housing investments. It makes sense that she now wants to explore fresh narrative sources, looking outwards to other people's stories, at a period in which she claims that current political era renders personal narrative redundant.

Several Eras, One Unescapable Past

The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, covering three generations – none able to break free from their backgrounds. There is the tale of Emma and Jasper, representations of Kraus's parents, relocating from the Bronx to the Connecticut countryside. Then there is the narrative of the author, in the guise of protagonist Catt Greene, reckoning with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her addict husband a man named Paul. Finally the narrative of a homicide of one troubled youth by another in a community largely deserted by forward-thinking policies only 80 miles from the protagonist's home in a remote part of Minnesota.

As a reader attracted to polished prose of the kind the author herself typically rejects, I was captivated by the narrative style of the initial segment.

As someone who reads who appreciates crafted language of the variety that the author tends to eschew, I was seduced by the literary tone of the first section. It exhibits a novel degree of detail that makes room for trivial aspects, like the bucket that the young Catt frees from the ice at the beginning of the narrative, helped by her adored dad. "I found an ice toy!" she says; "a nice toy", he replies, "the nuanced interpretations of terms rolling around in their mouths like hard candy". Kraus writes Emma's narrative with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not entirely her own."

Letdown and Fragmentation

I was bound to become frustrated when I hoped this different style could persist to the end. Kraus notes here that she is annoyed by the enjoyment audiences such as myself have derived from I Love Dick; she's committed to disruption, to the unpolished style she shares with her idol Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her earlier works reasserts itself in the second segment. Catt Greene is working on refurbishing multiple decrepit residences in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while shuttling between two different states, failing to help Paul manage his alcohol use. She experiences powerlessness as Paul moves between poorly supported positions as an substance abuse counselor in a society driven by the rage and anxiety that powers a political win. Multiple pages are devoted about the protagonist facing cancellation on Twitter, her occupation changed from "writer" to "real estate holder" on the online encyclopedia. Kraus still seems to care a little too much about this. In a moment 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 online critics would not understand, would not even see".

The Killing Story

Then we reach to the actual killing – and the referenced day spent by the victim with the murderer and his friends. Kraus has great source material, and details moment by moment what occurred as the victim Brandon came to visit Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she marketed explicit images. He was hoping for sex but seems affably to have spent the day in the company of her associates, loitering getting his car mended and paying for snacks and drugs, before being shot by Brittney's partner Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has repeatedly received inpatient care for aggressive outbursts.

Fascination and Incompletion

Catt develops an obsession by the story, and I found myself captivated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards ethical reporting and audacious rule-breaking clash in this segment. Yet I wished her to explore more thoroughly her personal fixations here. The most interesting character is the character Brittney, who comes alive in part due to the protagonist's connection to her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual spiraling out of control in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus notes that Catt converses with Brittney in jail, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The whole section feels strangely incomplete, to the point that her narrative ends almost mid-par