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The Four Spent the Day Together is populated with individuals chasing after fresh starts, trying to break free from drugs or harmful partnerships, only to find hope curdling into violence. Chris Kraus frequently uses the phrase "fresh start", rendering it willfully cynical through recurring use. Examples include "He aimed to start over" and "They opted for a clean break" are scattered across the text. And yet, she seems to be making her personal new beginning, as this appears a different type of work – fact-based, truly literary. Yet it reveals itself to be filled with the familiar conflicts and styles as her previous works.

From Accidental Writer to Renowned Book

Kraus started out as an artist who transitioned to writing almost accidentally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, structured as missives to a distant beloved, converting personal female narrative from abjection into assassination. She kept producing books, but the next trio of fascinating and rebarbative novels did not possess the impact and rawness that the correspondence format infused into the voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her role as a renegade artist who had evolved into a extensive real estate holder, so there was considerable focus on housing investments. It makes sense that she presently aims to experiment with new kinds of material, looking outwards to other people's stories, at a time when she claims that current political era renders personal narrative obsolete.

Several Eras, Shared Inescapable History

The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, covering multiple eras – none able to break free from their histories. The book includes the tale of Emma and Jasper, representations of the author's parents, transitioning from the Bronx to rural Connecticut. There is the story of Kraus herself, in the persona of a figure named Catt Greene, grappling with the belated success of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction Paul. And there is the account of a killing of one troubled youth by another in a town mostly forsaken by progressive politics only 80 miles from Catt's rural residence in rural Minnesota.

For this reader fond of polished prose of the kind the author herself tends to eschew, I was captivated by the literary tone of the opening part.

As a reader who appreciates crafted language of the style that the author usually avoids, I was seduced by the literary tone of the first section. It exhibits a fresh level of observation that makes room for minutiae, like the container that the protagonist as a child pries out of frozen water at the opening of the book, helped by her cherished parent. "Look, an ice toy!" she declares; "a nice toy", he answers, "the elliptical meanings of words rolling around in their mouths like hard candy". The author narrates Emma's narrative with interest and closeness. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not entirely her own."

Disappointment and Disjunction

I was fated to feel let down when I wished this fresh tone could continue through the novel. The author states here that she resents the pleasure readers like me have taken from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disruption, to the untidy aesthetics she shares with her idol Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her previous novels reasserts itself in the second segment. Catt is working on refurbishing 36 run-down apartments in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while traveling between the Midwest and the West Coast, failing to help Paul manage his alcohol use. She experiences powerlessness as Paul moves between underfunded jobs as an substance abuse counselor in a world driven by the anger and fear that drives Trump's victory. There are several pages about Catt being cancelled on Twitter, her occupation changed from "writer" to "real estate holder" on a reference site. She still gives the impression to care a little too much about this. At one point she states that she's looking into the killing so that before exiting the region, "she might be able to learn something about an America that her social media opponents would not understand, would overlook entirely".

The Homicide Account

Then we reach to the murder itself – and the referenced day passed by the murdered individual with the perpetrator and his companions. Kraus utilizes excellent raw material, and details moment by moment what happened when a man named Brandon came to meet Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she sold sex pictures. He sought a sexual encounter but appears congenially to have passed the day in the company of her associates, wandering about getting his car mended and funding treats and narcotics, before being murdered by Brittney's partner Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has frequently been hospitalised for fits of anger.

Fascination and Incompletion

Catt gets obsessed by the account, and I was fascinated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards responsible documentation and reckless transgression tussle in this section. Yet I wished her to explore more thoroughly her individual preoccupations here. The compelling persona is Brittney, who comes alive in part due to Catt seeing herself in her – another bright, bullied girl going off the rails in a difficult, overlooked locality. The author informs us that Catt converses with Brittney in detention, but she fails to enact these dialogues. This entire part feels oddly unfinished, to the point that her narrative ends almost mid-par