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The Four Spent the Day Together features characters seeking fresh starts, trying to break free from substance abuse or harmful partnerships, only to find hope curdling into conflict. Chris Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "clean slate", rendering it willfully cynical through recurring use. Examples include "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They decided to make a fresh start" appear throughout the text. And yet, she seems to be making her own fresh start, because this presents as a new kind of book – fact-based, truly literary. However it turns out to be laden with the recurring issues and approaches as earlier books.

From Accidental Writer to Iconic Work

The writer began as an artist who transitioned to writing somewhat by chance with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, structured as epistles to an unresponsive love interest, elevating personal female narrative from self-debasement into rebellion. She continued writing, but the following three engaging and challenging novels missed the impact and rawness that the epistolary style imparted to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her position as a nonconformist creator who had turned into a major property owner, so there was significant attention on real estate deals. It makes sense that she presently aims to explore fresh narrative sources, directing her gaze to the experiences of others, at a moment when she claims that current political era renders personal narrative redundant.

Three Generations, Shared Inescapable History

The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, spanning multiple eras – none able to break free from their backgrounds. We encounter the narrative about a couple named Emma and Jasper, representations of Kraus's parents, transitioning from the Bronx to rural Connecticut. Additionally the account of Kraus, in the character of protagonist Catt Greene, confronting the late recognition of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her addict husband Paul. The third thread involves the account of a killing of one directionless individual by another in a community largely deserted by liberal ideals only a short distance from Catt's rural residence in the Minnesota countryside.

For this reader drawn to honed writing of the sort Kraus tends to eschew, I was enchanted by the novelistic voice of the initial segment.

Being a reader who appreciates precise prose of the style that the author tends to eschew, I was won over by the literary tone of the first section. It exhibits a novel degree of detail that makes room for small details, like the bucket that the young Catt dislodges from ice at the start of the story, assisted by her beloved father. "I found an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a great plaything", he responds, "the ambiguous meanings of language tumbling in their mouths like hard candy". She tells Emma's story with interest and closeness. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not hers, exactly."

Frustration and Disruption

I was destined to be disappointed when I wished this new voice could persist to the end. Kraus notes here that she dislikes the enjoyment those who appreciate polished prose have gotten from I Love Dick; she's committed to disruption, to the untidy aesthetics she shares with her hero author Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her earlier works returns in the middle section. The protagonist is trying to renovate three dozen dilapidated units in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while shuttling between two different states, unable to aid Paul curb his addiction. She feels helpless as her spouse moves between underfunded jobs as an recovery specialist in a environment fueled by the rage and anxiety that drives a political win. Multiple pages are devoted about the protagonist facing cancellation on a platform, her occupation changed from "writer" to "real estate holder" on a reference site. She still gives the impression to be overly concerned about this. At one point she remarks that she's investigating the murder so that before leaving Minnesota, "she could potentially understand something about an America that her online critics would fail to comprehend, would not even perceive".

The Murder Narrative

Then we reach to the actual killing – and the titular day passed by the victim with the perpetrator and his companions. The author possesses compelling foundational content, and reconstructs step by step what occurred as Brandon came to see Brittney after meeting her on an app where she offered adult photos. He was hoping for sex but seems amiably to have occupied the day in the company of her associates, wandering about having his vehicle repaired and funding treats and narcotics, before being shot by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has often been institutionalized for aggressive outbursts.

Fascination and Incompletion

The protagonist becomes fixated by the story, and I found myself captivated by the way that her twin drives towards ethical reporting and audacious rule-breaking tussle in this section. But I'd have liked her to delve deeper into her individual preoccupations here. The standout figure is Brittney, who gains dimension partially because of Catt seeing herself in her – another bright, bullied girl derailing in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus tells us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in detention, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. The complete segment feels curiously unresolved, to the point that her narrative ends almost mid-par