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The Four Spent the Day Together is populated with characters chasing after clean slates, struggling to escape drugs or harmful partnerships, only to witness hope devolve into aggression. Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "fresh start", making it intentionally weary through its repetitions. Examples include "He aimed to start over" and "They chose to begin anew" appear throughout the story. And yet, Kraus herself seems to be making her own fresh start, as this presents as a new kind of book – observational, truly literary. However it proves to be packed with the recurring issues and styles as past novels.

From Accidental Writer to Iconic Work

Chris Kraus started out as an creative who entered the literary world almost accidentally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, which was composed of letters to an unreceptive lover, elevating personal female narrative from self-debasement into defiance. She continued writing, but the next trio of compelling and abrasive novels missed the power and directness that the correspondence format infused into the narrative voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her identity as a nonconformist creator who had evolved into a extensive real estate holder, so there was considerable focus on property transactions. It makes sense that she currently desires to experiment with new kinds of material, turning outward to other people's stories, at a moment when she states that contemporary political climate turns intimate literature redundant.

Several Eras, One Unescapable Past

The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, encompassing several time periods – none able to break free from their histories. The book includes the tale of Emma and Jasper, based on her own mother and father, relocating from the urban environment to the Connecticut countryside. Then there is the account of Kraus, in the guise of Catt Greene, grappling with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse a man named Paul. And there is the account of a killing of one troubled youth by another in a community mostly forsaken by liberal ideals only a short distance from the protagonist's home in a remote part of Minnesota.

For this reader attracted to honed writing of the sort Kraus typically rejects, I was enchanted by the narrative style of the initial segment.

As someone who reads who favors honed writing of the variety that the author usually avoids, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the opening segment. There is a new quality of attentiveness that makes room for trivial aspects, like the container that the protagonist as a child frees from the ice at the start of the story, aided by her cherished parent. "I found an ice toy!" she declares; "a lovely toy", he answers, "the nuanced interpretations of terms rolling around in their mouths like hard candy". She tells the tale of Emma with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not precisely her dream."

Disappointment and Disjunction

I was fated to feel let down when I expected this fresh tone could persist to the end. Kraus says here that she resents the enjoyment readers like me have gotten from I Love Dick; she's committed to fragmentation, to the untidy aesthetics she has in common with her idol writer Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her past books returns in the second segment. Catt Greene is attempting to do up 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 cycles through underfunded jobs as an substance abuse counselor in a environment driven by the anger and fear that powers Trump's victory. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt being cancelled on Twitter, her professional designation altered from "author" to "property owner" on the online encyclopedia. The author still appears to invest excessive emotion about this. On one occasion she remarks that she's investigating the murder so that before departing the state, "she could potentially understand something about an America that her Twitter detractors would fail to comprehend, would overlook entirely".

The Homicide Account

So then we come to the actual killing – and the eponymous day passed by the murdered individual with the killer and his companions. The author possesses great source material, and knows hour by hour what transpired when Brandon came to meet Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she sold sex pictures. He was hoping for sex but seems amiably to have occupied the day alongside her friends, mooching around having his vehicle repaired and covering the cost of food and substances, before being shot by Brittney's partner Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has often been institutionalized for aggressive outbursts.

Obsession and Unfinished Business

Catt develops an obsession by the story, and I was intrigued by the way that her twin drives towards ethical reporting and daring boundary-pushing tussle in this section. But I'd have liked her to explore more thoroughly her own obsessions here. The compelling persona is the character Brittney, who becomes vivid partly through Catt's identification with her – another bright, bullied girl 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 oddly unfinished, to the degree that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par