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The Four Spent the Day Together features individuals chasing after clean slates, trying to break free from substance abuse or toxic relationships, only to witness hope devolve into aggression. Chris Kraus frequently uses the phrase "new beginning", making it intentionally weary through recurring use. Phrases such as "He could make a fresh start" and "They chose to begin anew" recur in the story. At the same time, the author herself seems to be making her individual reinvention, since this seems a new kind of book – fact-based, truly literary. Yet it turns out to be filled with the same dilemmas and styles as her previous works.

From Chance Novelist to Cult Classic

Chris Kraus started out as an visual artist who became a writer unintentionally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, structured as missives to a distant beloved, transforming intimate women's literature from self-debasement into rebellion. She persisted as a writer, but the next trio of fascinating and rebarbative novels did not possess the power and directness that the letter form infused into the voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her role as a renegade artist who had evolved into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was significant attention on property transactions. It follows that she presently aims to explore different types of content, turning outward to the experiences of others, at a period in which she states that current political era makes confessional writing obsolete.

Multiple Generations, Collective Unavoidable Background

The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, encompassing several time periods – all unable to escape their histories. We encounter the tale of Emma and Jasper, representations of the author's parents, moving from the New York borough to the Connecticut countryside. Then there is the story of Kraus herself, in the persona of a figure named Catt Greene, reckoning with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her addict husband Paul. Finally the account of a killing of one directionless individual by another in a town largely deserted by progressive politics only a short distance from Catt's rural residence in rural Minnesota.

From my perspective as a reader fond of polished prose of the type Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was enchanted by the narrative style of the opening part.

Being a reader drawn to honed writing of the style that Kraus herself usually avoids, I was captivated by the storytelling approach of the first section. It possesses a fresh level of observation that accommodates trivial aspects, like the container that the young Catt pries out of frozen water at the beginning of the narrative, assisted by her cherished parent. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she says; "a nice toy", he responds, "the elliptical meanings of words tumbling in their mouths like sweet treats". Kraus writes Emma's narrative with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not entirely her own."

Letdown and Fragmentation

I was destined to be disappointed when I hoped this fresh tone could persist to the end. Kraus notes here that she resents the enjoyment audiences such as myself have taken from I Love Dick; she's committed to fragmentation, to the messy artistic approach she shares with her hero Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her previous novels reasserts itself in the second segment. Catt Greene is trying to renovate multiple decrepit residences in the city's most challenging districts while moving between two different states, failing to help Paul manage his alcohol use. She is overwhelmed as Paul moves between poorly supported positions as an recovery specialist in a world fueled by the anger and fear that drives a political win. A significant portion discusses about the protagonist facing cancellation on a platform, her listed profession modified from "novelist" to "real estate holder" on Wikipedia. Kraus still seems to be overly concerned about this. On one occasion she remarks that she's researching the homicide so that before exiting the region, "she may grasp something about an the nation that her online critics would fail to comprehend, would overlook entirely".

The Murder Narrative

Thus we arrive to the murder itself – and the titular day experienced by the victim with the murderer and his friends. Kraus utilizes excellent raw material, and knows hour by hour what happened when the victim Brandon came to visit Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she offered adult photos. He sought a sexual encounter but appears congenially to have passed the day alongside her friends, loitering fixing his automobile and paying for snacks and drugs, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's partner Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has frequently been hospitalised for aggressive outbursts.

Fascination and Incompletion

Catt develops an obsession by the story, and I found myself captivated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards accurate chronicling and audacious rule-breaking wrestle in this part. But I'd have liked her to explore more thoroughly her individual preoccupations here. The compelling persona is Brittney, who comes alive in part due to Catt's identification with 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 omits the dramatization of these talks. The whole section feels curiously unresolved, to the point that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par