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The Four Spent the Day Together features characters chasing after clean slates, attempting to leave behind addictions or toxic relationships, only to find hope curdling into conflict. Chris Kraus frequently uses the phrase "new beginning", rendering it intentionally weary through constant reiteration. Examples include "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They chose to begin anew" recur in the story. Meanwhile, she seems to be making her personal new beginning, because this appears a new kind of book – documentarian, authentically narrative. Yet it proves to be packed with the familiar conflicts and approaches as earlier books.

From Unplanned Author to Iconic Work

Chris Kraus started out as an artist who entered the literary world almost accidentally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, which was composed of missives to a distant beloved, converting personal female narrative from humiliation into defiance. She continued writing, but the following three compelling and abrasive novels did not possess the shock and immediacy that the epistolary style brought to the voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her identity as a maverick maker who had turned into a extensive real estate holder, so there was much discussion on real estate deals. It makes sense that she now wants to try out different types of content, turning outward to the experiences of others, at a time when she states that contemporary political climate makes confessional writing redundant.

Three Generations, One Unescapable Past

The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, spanning multiple eras – none able to break free from their histories. There is the narrative about characters Emma and Jasper, representations of her own mother and father, relocating from the New York borough to the Connecticut countryside. There is the account of Kraus, in the guise of a figure named Catt Greene, confronting the late recognition of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her partner struggling with addiction her husband Paul. And there is the story of the murder of one directionless individual by another in a community largely deserted by forward-thinking policies only a brief drive from Catt's cottage in rural Minnesota.

For this reader drawn to refined literature of the kind Kraus typically rejects, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the initial segment.

Being a reader who favors precise prose of the variety that the author usually avoids, I was won over by the storytelling approach of the opening segment. It exhibits a novel degree of detail that makes room for minutiae, like the pail that the protagonist as a child pries out of frozen water at the beginning of the narrative, helped by her adored dad. "I found an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a lovely toy", he replies, "the elliptical meanings of words tumbling in their mouths like hard candy". The author narrates Emma's narrative with curiosity and intimacy. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not entirely her own."

Letdown and Fragmentation

I was bound to become frustrated when I expected this new voice could continue through the novel. The author states here that she is annoyed by the satisfaction audiences such as myself have taken from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to fragmentation, to the untidy aesthetics she has in common with her idol writer Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her previous novels comes back in the central part. The protagonist is attempting to do up 36 run-down apartments in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while shuttling between the Midwest and the West Coast, failing to help Paul curb his addiction. She experiences powerlessness as Paul cycles through poorly supported positions as an substance abuse counselor in a environment fueled by the anger and fear that drives a political win. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt's social media ostracism on a platform, her listed profession modified from "writer" to "real estate holder" on Wikipedia. The author still appears to be overly concerned about this. In a moment she remarks that she's looking into the killing so that before departing the state, "she could potentially understand something about an America that her online critics would fail to comprehend, would overlook entirely".

The Killing Story

So then we come to the murder itself – and the eponymous day spent by the murdered individual with the perpetrator and his companions. The author possesses great source material, and knows hour by hour what occurred as the victim Brandon came to see Brittney after connecting via an application where she offered adult photos. He sought a sexual encounter but appears congenially to have passed the day with her companions, mooching around getting his car mended and covering the cost of food and substances, before being shot by Brittney's partner Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has frequently been hospitalised for fits of anger.

Obsession and Unfinished Business

Catt develops an obsession by the account, and I was fascinated by the way that her twin drives towards responsible documentation and daring boundary-pushing wrestle in this part. But I'd have liked her to delve deeper into her own obsessions here. The compelling persona is Brittney herself, who gains dimension partially because of the protagonist's connection to her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual going off the rails in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus notes that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in prison, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The whole section feels curiously unresolved, to the extent that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par