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The Four Spent the Day Together features individuals pursuing fresh starts, trying to break free from substance abuse or abusive marriages, only to witness hope devolve into conflict. Chris Kraus frequently uses the phrase "fresh start", transforming it into willfully cynical through its repetitions. Phrases such as "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They chose to begin anew" are scattered across the story. And yet, the author herself appears to be undertaking her individual reinvention, because this seems a novel form of writing – documentarian, genuinely novelistic. However it proves to be filled with the familiar conflicts and aesthetics as her previous works.

From Unplanned Author to Cult Classic

Chris Kraus was originally an artist who became a writer somewhat by chance with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, structured as letters to an unreceptive lover, converting personal female narrative from self-debasement into assassination. She kept producing books, but the following three fascinating and rebarbative novels missed the impact and rawness that the epistolary style brought to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her identity as a nonconformist creator who had become a major property owner, so there was considerable focus on housing investments. It follows that she now wants to experiment with different types of content, turning outward to the experiences of others, at a period in which she states that Trumpian politics renders personal narrative redundant.

Three Generations, One Unescapable Past

The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, encompassing three generations – all unable to escape their pasts. We encounter the narrative about Emma and Jasper, based on the author's parents, transitioning from the urban environment to a pastoral setting. There is the narrative of the author, in the persona of protagonist Catt Greene, grappling with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction Paul. Finally the account of a killing of one directionless individual by another in a town mostly forsaken by progressive politics only a short distance from Catt's rural residence in a remote part of Minnesota.

As a reader attracted to polished prose of the kind Kraus typically rejects, I was enchanted by the narrative style of the first section.

As a reader who favors precise prose of the style that Kraus herself usually avoids, I was won over by the novelistic voice of the first section. It exhibits a novel degree of detail that allows space for trivial aspects, like the pail that the young Catt dislodges from ice at the start of the story, aided by her adored dad. "I found an ice toy!" she says; "a lovely toy", he responds, "the nuanced interpretations of terms rolling around in their mouths like piece candy". She tells Emma's story with curiosity and intimacy. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not entirely her own."

Frustration and Disruption

I was fated to feel let down when I expected this fresh tone could persist to the end. The author states here that she resents the pleasure readers like me have gotten from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to fragmentation, to the untidy aesthetics she echoes from her idol writer Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her previous novels comes back in the middle section. Catt Greene is attempting to do up 36 run-down apartments in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while moving between Minnesota and LA, unable to aid her husband curb his addiction. She feels helpless as Paul transitions between poorly supported positions as an substance abuse counselor in a environment fueled by the rage and anxiety that powers Trump's victory. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt being cancelled on a platform, her occupation changed from "novelist" to "property owner" on the online encyclopedia. The author still appears to be overly concerned about this. In a moment she states that she's researching the homicide so that before exiting the region, "she may grasp something about an the nation that her social media opponents would be unable to grasp, would not even see".

The Murder Narrative

Thus we arrive to the actual killing – and the eponymous day experienced by the victim with the killer and his friends. The author possesses great source material, and knows hour by hour what occurred as the victim Brandon came to meet Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she marketed explicit images. He was hoping for sex but appears congenially to have passed the day alongside her friends, loitering getting his car mended and covering the cost of food and substances, before being murdered by her romantic interest Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has frequently been hospitalised for violent rage.

Fascination and Incompletion

The protagonist becomes fixated by the story, and I was fascinated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards accurate chronicling and reckless transgression clash in this segment. But I'd have liked her to go further into her own obsessions here. The most interesting character is Brittney, who comes alive in part due to Catt's identification with her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman spiraling out of control in a difficult, overlooked locality. The author informs us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in prison, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The complete segment feels strangely incomplete, to the point that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par