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The Four Spent the Day Together is populated with protagonists chasing after new beginnings, struggling to escape substance abuse or toxic relationships, only to see hope turn into violence. Chris Kraus often employs the phrase "fresh start", making it willfully cynical through constant reiteration. Sentences like "He aimed to start over" and "They chose to begin anew" are scattered across the narrative. At the same time, the author herself seems to be making her individual reinvention, as this seems a new kind of book – fact-based, genuinely novelistic. But then it reveals itself to be laden with the recurring issues and approaches as earlier books.

From Accidental Writer to Cult Classic

Kraus began as an visual artist who entered the literary world unintentionally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, made up of missives to a distant beloved, transforming intimate women's literature from self-debasement into assassination. She continued writing, but the following three compelling and abrasive novels missed the impact and rawness that the letter form brought to the tone of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her position as a renegade artist who had evolved into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was much discussion on housing investments. It makes sense that she presently aims to explore different types of content, looking outwards to the experiences of others, at a period in which she asserts that contemporary political climate renders personal narrative redundant.

Several Eras, Shared Inescapable History

The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, spanning three generations – none able to break free from their histories. We encounter the narrative about Emma and Jasper, versions of Kraus's parents, relocating from the New York borough to a pastoral setting. There is the account of Kraus, in the guise of protagonist Catt Greene, reckoning with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse a man named Paul. And there is the story of the murder of one troubled youth by another in a locality long abandoned by forward-thinking policies only a brief drive from Catt's rural residence in rural Minnesota.

For this reader attracted to honed writing of the type the author herself often avoids, I was enchanted by the novelistic voice of the opening part.

Being a reader drawn to crafted language of the kind that the author tends to eschew, I was captivated by the literary tone of the initial part. It exhibits a novel degree of detail that allows space for small details, like the pail that the youthful Catt dislodges from ice at the beginning of the narrative, assisted by her cherished parent. "I found an ice toy!" she says; "a great plaything", he responds, "the nuanced interpretations of terms circulating in their speech like hard candy". She tells Emma's story with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not hers, exactly."

Letdown and Fragmentation

I was fated to feel let down when I wished this different style could continue through the novel. Kraus says here that she is annoyed by the pleasure audiences such as myself have derived from I Love Dick; she's devoted to fragmentation, to the untidy aesthetics she has in common with her idol author Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her previous novels returns in the middle section. Catt is attempting to do up multiple decrepit residences in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while moving between Minnesota and LA, unable to aid her husband manage his alcohol use. She is overwhelmed as her spouse moves between low-resource employment as an recovery specialist in a world propelled by the hostility and dread that drives an electoral success. A significant portion discusses about Catt's social media ostracism on social media, her occupation changed from "novelist" to "real estate holder" on the online encyclopedia. Kraus still seems to be overly concerned about this. In a moment she states that she's investigating the murder so that before departing the state, "she could potentially understand something about an the United States that her social media opponents would fail to comprehend, would not even perceive".

The Homicide Account

So then we come to the murder itself – and the referenced day experienced by the murdered individual with the murderer and his companions. Kraus has excellent raw material, and reconstructs step by step what transpired when Brandon came to visit Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she sold sex pictures. He anticipated intimacy but seems affably to have spent the day in the company of her associates, loitering having his vehicle repaired and covering the cost of food and substances, before being murdered by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has often been institutionalized for fits of anger.

Preoccupation and Open Ends

The protagonist becomes fixated by the account, and I was intrigued by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards responsible documentation and daring boundary-pushing tussle in this section. Yet I wished her to explore more thoroughly her own obsessions here. The standout figure is the character Brittney, who becomes vivid in part due to Catt seeing herself in her – another bright, bullied girl spiraling out of control in a struggling, neglected community. The author informs us that Catt speaks to Brittney in prison, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. The whole section feels oddly unfinished, to the degree that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par