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The Four Spent the Day Together is populated with characters chasing after new beginnings, struggling to escape substance abuse or toxic relationships, only to see hope turn into aggression. The author repeatedly invokes the phrase "fresh start", making it intentionally weary through recurring use. Sentences like "He aimed to start over" and "They chose to begin anew" are scattered across the story. At the same time, the author herself appears to be undertaking her personal new beginning, because this presents as a novel form of writing – documentarian, authentically narrative. Yet it turns out to be packed with the familiar conflicts and approaches as past novels.

From Unplanned Author to Renowned Book

Chris Kraus was originally an visual artist who transitioned to writing somewhat by chance with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, structured as epistles to an unresponsive love interest, converting intimate women's literature from humiliation into defiance. She persisted as a writer, but the three subsequent compelling and abrasive novels lacked the shock and immediacy that the letter form infused into the voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her role as a nonconformist creator who had become a major property owner, so there was considerable focus on real estate deals. It follows that she now wants to experiment with different types of content, looking outwards to the experiences of others, at a moment when she asserts that Trumpian politics turns intimate literature unnecessary.

Three Generations, Collective Unavoidable Background

The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, covering multiple eras – each trapped by their histories. We encounter the story of a couple named Emma and Jasper, versions of Kraus's parents, relocating from the urban environment to a pastoral setting. Additionally the story of Kraus herself, in the guise of Catt Greene, reckoning with the belated success of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction a man named Paul. The third thread involves the narrative of a homicide of one directionless individual by another in a community largely deserted by liberal ideals only a brief drive from the protagonist's home in a remote part of Minnesota.

From my perspective as a reader attracted to refined literature of the sort Kraus herself often avoids, I was captivated by the literary tone of the first section.

As someone who reads who favors precise prose of the style that Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was won over by the literary tone of the opening segment. It exhibits a new quality of attentiveness that makes room for trivial aspects, like the bucket that the young Catt dislodges from ice at the start of the story, assisted by her beloved father. "I found an ice toy!" she declares; "a great plaything", he responds, "the elliptical meanings of words rolling around in their mouths like sweet treats". The author narrates the tale of Emma with inquiry and familiarity. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not hers, exactly."

Letdown and Fragmentation

I was destined to be disappointed when I wished this fresh tone could persist to the end. The author states here that she is annoyed by the pleasure audiences such as myself have taken from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disjunction, to the messy artistic approach she shares with her idol writer Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her past books reasserts itself in the middle section. Catt is working on refurbishing 36 run-down apartments in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while shuttling between two different states, unsuccessful in assisting her husband control his drinking. She experiences powerlessness as Paul cycles through low-resource employment as an recovery specialist in a society fueled by the rage and anxiety that drives an electoral success. There are several pages about Catt's social media ostracism on social media, her occupation changed from "writer" to "property owner" on Wikipedia. The author still appears to invest excessive emotion about this. On one occasion she states that she's researching the homicide so that before leaving Minnesota, "she could potentially understand something about an the United States that her online critics would be unable to grasp, would not even perceive".

The Killing Story

Thus we arrive to the actual killing – and the titular day passed by the murdered individual with the murderer and his friends. Kraus utilizes compelling foundational content, and reconstructs step by step what happened when Brandon came to visit Brittney after connecting via an application where she offered adult photos. He was hoping for sex but seems affably to have spent the day with her companions, mooching around fixing his automobile and covering the cost of food and substances, before being murdered by Brittney's partner Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has often been institutionalized for violent rage.

Obsession and Unfinished Business

The protagonist becomes fixated by the story, and I was intrigued by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards accurate chronicling and daring boundary-pushing tussle in this section. But I'd have liked her to delve deeper into her personal fixations here. The most interesting character is Brittney herself, who gains dimension partially because of Catt seeing herself in her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual spiraling out of control in a difficult, overlooked locality. The author informs us that Catt speaks to Brittney in detention, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. This entire part feels curiously unresolved, to the degree that her narrative ends almost mid-par