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The Four Spent the Day Together centers on individuals pursuing fresh starts, attempting to leave behind substance abuse or toxic relationships, only to see hope turn into conflict. Chris Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "fresh start", rendering it deliberately jaded through constant reiteration. Examples include "He could make a fresh start" and "They opted for a clean break" are scattered across the narrative. At the same time, she appears to be undertaking her individual reinvention, since this presents as a novel form of writing – fact-based, truly literary. However it turns out to be packed with the recurring issues and aesthetics as earlier books.

From Chance Novelist to Renowned Book

Kraus started out as an visual artist who entered the literary world unintentionally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, made up of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, elevating confessional female writing from abjection into rebellion. She kept producing books, but the three subsequent compelling and abrasive novels lacked the shock and immediacy that the letter form infused into the tone of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her identity as a maverick maker who had turned into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was much discussion on real estate deals. It is logical that she now wants to try out fresh narrative sources, turning outward to other people's stories, at a time when she claims that contemporary political climate makes confessional writing redundant.

Multiple Generations, Collective Unavoidable Background

The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, covering three generations – all unable to escape their pasts. We encounter the story of Emma and Jasper, representations of her own mother and father, moving from the Bronx to the Connecticut countryside. Additionally the story of Kraus herself, in the guise of protagonist Catt Greene, confronting the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse Paul. The third thread involves the narrative of a homicide of one troubled youth by another in a community largely deserted by forward-thinking policies only a short distance from the protagonist's home in rural Minnesota.

For this reader fond of refined literature of the sort Kraus typically rejects, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the first section.

As someone who reads drawn to crafted language of the style that Kraus herself usually avoids, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the initial part. There is a novel degree of detail that allows space for minutiae, like the container that the protagonist as a child pries out of frozen water at the opening of the book, assisted by her adored dad. "I found an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a lovely toy", he responds, "the nuanced interpretations of terms tumbling in their mouths like piece candy". The author narrates the tale of Emma with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not precisely her dream."

Letdown and Fragmentation

I was destined to be disappointed when I hoped this fresh tone could continue through the novel. Kraus notes here that she resents the enjoyment those who appreciate polished prose have derived from I Love Dick; she's committed to disjunction, to the messy artistic approach she has in common with her hero writer Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her earlier works returns in the middle section. Catt Greene is attempting to do up 36 run-down apartments in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while traveling between two different states, unable to aid her husband manage his alcohol use. She experiences powerlessness as her spouse transitions between poorly supported positions as an recovery specialist in a society propelled by the anger and fear that underpins Trump's victory. A significant portion discusses about Catt's social media ostracism on social media, her professional designation altered from "novelist" to "real estate holder" on a reference site. The author still appears to care a little too much about this. On one occasion she remarks that she's researching the homicide so that before exiting the region, "she might be able to learn something about an the nation that her social media opponents would fail to comprehend, would not even perceive".

The Murder Narrative

Then we reach to the murder itself – and the referenced day spent by the victim with the killer and his associates. Kraus utilizes great source material, and details moment by moment what occurred as the victim Brandon came to meet Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she marketed explicit images. He sought a sexual encounter but seems amiably to have occupied the day in the company of her associates, mooching around fixing his automobile and funding treats and narcotics, before being shot by Brittney's boyfriend a man named Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has often been institutionalized for violent rage.

Obsession and Unfinished Business

The protagonist becomes fixated by the account, and I was intrigued by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards responsible documentation and audacious rule-breaking wrestle in this part. But I'd have liked her to go further into her own obsessions here. The compelling persona is the character Brittney, who becomes vivid partially because of Catt seeing herself in her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual going off the rails in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus notes that Catt converses with Brittney in jail, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. This entire part feels curiously unresolved, to the extent that her narrative ends almost mid-par