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The Four Spent the Day Together centers on individuals seeking fresh starts, trying to break free from addictions or abusive marriages, only to find hope curdling into aggression. Chris Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "new beginning", rendering it intentionally weary through its repetitions. Phrases such as "He could make a fresh start" and "They decided to make a fresh start" recur in the narrative. And yet, she is embarking on her individual reinvention, as this presents as a novel form of writing – fact-based, authentically narrative. However it proves to be packed with the familiar conflicts and aesthetics as past novels.

From Unplanned Author to Renowned Book

The writer started out as an visual artist who transitioned to writing almost accidentally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, made up of letters to an unreceptive lover, transforming confessional female writing from humiliation into assassination. She persisted as a writer, but the following three fascinating and rebarbative novels did not possess the shock and immediacy that the correspondence format imparted to the tone of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her position as a nonconformist creator who had turned into a major property owner, so there was considerable focus on housing investments. It follows that she presently aims to try out new kinds of material, turning outward to the experiences of others, at a period in which she states that contemporary political climate turns intimate literature obsolete.

Three Generations, Shared Inescapable History

The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, spanning multiple eras – none able to break free from their pasts. The book includes the tale of Emma and Jasper, versions of the author's parents, relocating from the urban environment to a pastoral setting. There is the story of Kraus herself, in the character of Catt Greene, grappling with the belated success of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse Paul. The third thread involves the story of the murder of one troubled youth by another in a locality long abandoned by liberal ideals only a brief drive from Catt's cottage in rural Minnesota.

From my perspective as a reader fond of polished prose of the type Kraus often avoids, I was enchanted by the narrative style of the initial segment.

As a reader drawn to honed writing of the style that the author tends to eschew, I was captivated by the literary tone of the first section. There is a new quality of attentiveness that makes room for trivial aspects, like the bucket that the protagonist as a child pries out of frozen water at the beginning of the narrative, helped by her cherished parent. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she says; "a great plaything", he answers, "the ambiguous meanings of language tumbling in their mouths like sweet treats". The author narrates the tale of Emma with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not entirely her own."

Disappointment and Disjunction

I was bound to become frustrated when I expected this new voice could last out the book. Kraus notes here that she resents the enjoyment audiences such as myself have derived from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disjunction, to the untidy aesthetics she echoes from her inspiration writer Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her past books comes back in the middle section. The protagonist is working on refurbishing 36 run-down apartments in the city's most challenging districts while shuttling between Minnesota and LA, unable to aid her husband curb his addiction. She experiences powerlessness as her spouse moves between underfunded jobs as an addiction therapist in a environment fueled by the anger and fear that powers an electoral success. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt's social media ostracism on a platform, her listed profession modified from "novelist" to "real estate holder" on the online encyclopedia. Kraus still seems to care a little too much about this. On one occasion she states that she's looking into the killing so that before departing the state, "she might be able to learn something about an the nation that her social media opponents would fail to comprehend, would not even see".

The Homicide Account

Thus we arrive to the actual killing – and the referenced day spent by the victim with the murderer and his companions. Kraus has compelling foundational content, and knows hour by hour what transpired when a man named Brandon came to meet Brittney after connecting via an application where she offered adult photos. He was hoping for sex but seems amiably to have occupied the day with her companions, loitering getting his car mended and covering the cost of food and substances, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's boyfriend a man named Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has repeatedly received inpatient care for violent rage.

Preoccupation and Open Ends

Catt develops an obsession by the account, and I was fascinated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards ethical reporting and audacious rule-breaking wrestle in this part. But I'd have liked her to explore more thoroughly her own obsessions here. The most interesting character is the character 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 speaks to Brittney in jail, but she fails to enact these dialogues. This entire part feels oddly unfinished, to the degree that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par