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The Four Spent the Day Together features protagonists pursuing fresh starts, trying to break free from substance abuse or abusive marriages, only to witness hope devolve into aggression. The author frequently uses the phrase "new beginning", rendering it deliberately jaded through recurring use. Examples include "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They opted for a clean break" appear throughout the text. At the same time, the author herself is embarking on her personal new beginning, since this presents as a novel form of writing – fact-based, genuinely novelistic. But then it proves to be packed with the same dilemmas and approaches as her previous works.

From Chance Novelist to Cult Classic

Chris Kraus was originally an visual artist who entered the literary world unintentionally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, which was composed of letters to an unreceptive lover, transforming personal female narrative from humiliation into assassination. She continued writing, but the next trio of engaging and challenging novels missed the power and directness that the correspondence format imparted to the tone of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her role as a maverick maker who had evolved into a extensive real estate holder, so there was much discussion on real estate deals. It follows that she currently desires to experiment with fresh narrative sources, directing her gaze to other people's stories, at a time when she claims that contemporary political climate makes confessional writing obsolete.

Multiple Generations, Shared Inescapable History

The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, encompassing three generations – all unable to escape their backgrounds. The book includes the narrative about Emma and Jasper, versions of Kraus's parents, relocating from the Bronx to the Connecticut countryside. There is the story of Kraus herself, in the guise of protagonist Catt Greene, reckoning with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction a man named Paul. Finally the story of the murder of one troubled youth by another in a locality long abandoned by liberal ideals only a short distance from the protagonist's home in rural Minnesota.

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

As someone who reads who favors crafted language of the style that Kraus tends to eschew, I was captivated by the literary tone of the opening segment. There is a fresh level of observation that accommodates minutiae, like the bucket that the young Catt frees from the ice at the opening of the book, aided by her cherished parent. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she declares; "a lovely toy", he answers, "the nuanced interpretations of terms circulating in their speech like piece candy". She tells Emma's story with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not hers, exactly."

Letdown and Fragmentation

I was fated to feel let down when I hoped this different style could continue through the novel. Kraus says here that she dislikes the enjoyment those who appreciate polished prose have taken from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disruption, to the untidy aesthetics she shares with her hero writer Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her past books comes back in the second segment. Catt is trying to renovate 36 run-down apartments in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while shuttling between two different states, unsuccessful in assisting Paul manage his alcohol use. She feels helpless as Paul transitions between poorly supported positions as an substance abuse counselor in a environment driven by the hostility and dread that underpins an electoral success. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt being cancelled on Twitter, her professional designation altered from "author" to "real estate holder" on a reference site. Kraus still seems to care a little too much about this. On one occasion she says that she's researching the homicide so that before leaving Minnesota, "she might be able to learn something about an the United States that her online critics would fail to comprehend, would overlook entirely".

The Killing Story

So then we come to the homicide in question – and the eponymous day experienced by the deceased with the murderer and his friends. Kraus utilizes compelling foundational content, and details moment by moment what occurred as a man named Brandon came to visit Brittney after meeting her on an app where she marketed explicit images. He anticipated intimacy but appears congenially to have passed the day with her companions, mooching around fixing his automobile and covering the cost of food and substances, before being killed by gunfire by her romantic interest Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has repeatedly received inpatient care for violent rage.

Fascination and Incompletion

Catt gets obsessed by the story, and I was fascinated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards ethical reporting and audacious rule-breaking tussle in this section. But I'd have liked her to explore more thoroughly her personal fixations here. The most interesting character is Brittney, who becomes vivid partly through Catt's identification with her – another bright, bullied girl derailing in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus tells us that Catt converses with Brittney in detention, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. The complete segment feels curiously unresolved, to the point that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par