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The Four Spent the Day Together centers on protagonists pursuing new beginnings, attempting to leave behind substance abuse or toxic relationships, only to see hope turn into conflict. Chris Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "clean slate", making it intentionally weary through recurring use. Sentences like "He could make a fresh start" and "They decided to make a fresh start" appear throughout the text. Meanwhile, the author herself is embarking on her personal new beginning, as this appears a novel form of writing – observational, genuinely novelistic. But then it proves to be packed with the familiar conflicts and styles as earlier books.

From Unplanned Author to Renowned Book

Chris Kraus was originally an visual artist who became a writer almost accidentally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, made up of letters to an unreceptive lover, converting confessional female writing from humiliation into assassination. She continued writing, but the next trio of compelling and abrasive novels missed the power and directness that the letter form infused into the tone of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her role as a nonconformist creator who had turned into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was considerable focus on housing investments. It is logical that she presently aims to explore different types of content, turning outward to other people's stories, at a period in which she asserts that current political era renders personal narrative redundant.

Multiple Generations, Shared Inescapable History

The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, covering three generations – all unable to escape their pasts. We encounter the story of a couple named Emma and Jasper, based on the author's parents, moving from the New York borough to the Connecticut countryside. There is the narrative of the author, in the guise of Catt Greene, reckoning with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her addict husband Paul. The third thread involves the story of the murder of one directionless individual by another in a community mostly forsaken by forward-thinking policies only 80 miles from Catt's rural residence in the Minnesota countryside.

As a reader attracted to honed writing of the type Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was enchanted by the novelistic voice of the opening part.

Being a reader who appreciates crafted language of the variety that Kraus herself usually avoids, I was won over by the novelistic voice of the initial part. It possesses a new quality of attentiveness that allows space for small details, like the container that the youthful Catt frees from the ice at the opening of the book, aided by her adored dad. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she exclaims; "a lovely toy", he responds, "the ambiguous meanings of language circulating in their speech like hard candy". She tells the tale of Emma with interest and closeness. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not precisely her dream."

Frustration and Disruption

I was destined to be disappointed when I hoped this new voice could continue through the novel. The author states here that she resents the satisfaction those who appreciate polished prose have gotten from I Love Dick; she's committed to disjunction, to the messy artistic approach she shares with her inspiration author Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her previous novels returns in the second segment. The protagonist is attempting to do up three dozen dilapidated units in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while shuttling between the Midwest and the West Coast, unsuccessful in assisting Paul curb his addiction. She feels helpless as Paul cycles through poorly supported positions as an substance abuse counselor in a society propelled by the hostility and dread that powers Trump's victory. A significant portion discusses about Catt's social media ostracism on a platform, her listed profession modified from "author" to "property owner" on the online encyclopedia. The author still appears to be overly concerned about this. At one point she remarks that she's investigating the murder so that before leaving Minnesota, "she might be able to learn something about an America that her Twitter detractors would fail to comprehend, would not even perceive".

The Murder Narrative

Thus we arrive to the homicide in question – and the eponymous day experienced by the deceased with the murderer and his friends. The author possesses great source material, and reconstructs step by step what transpired when the victim Brandon came to see Brittney after meeting her on an app where she offered adult photos. He anticipated intimacy but seems affably to have spent the day in the company of her associates, mooching around having his vehicle repaired and funding treats and narcotics, before being murdered by her romantic interest a man named Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has repeatedly received inpatient care for fits of anger.

Preoccupation and Open Ends

Catt gets obsessed by the account, and I was intrigued by the way that her twin drives towards ethical reporting and reckless transgression tussle in this section. But I'd have liked her to delve deeper into her own obsessions here. The standout figure is the character Brittney, who comes alive partially because of Catt's identification with her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman going off the rails in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus notes that Catt speaks to Brittney in prison, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The whole section feels curiously unresolved, to the point that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par