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The Four Spent the Day Together is populated with characters seeking new beginnings, attempting to leave behind addictions or abusive marriages, only to find hope curdling into violence. Chris Kraus frequently uses the phrase "new beginning", rendering it intentionally weary through recurring use. Examples include "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They opted for a clean break" appear throughout the story. At the same time, the author herself is embarking on her own fresh start, since this presents as a new kind of book – documentarian, genuinely novelistic. Yet it reveals itself to be filled with the familiar conflicts and styles as her previous works.

From Chance Novelist to Iconic Work

The writer began as an visual artist who became a writer almost accidentally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, structured as epistles to an unresponsive love interest, elevating personal female narrative from self-debasement into rebellion. She continued writing, but the following three engaging and challenging novels missed the power and directness that the epistolary style imparted to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her position as a renegade artist who had become a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was much discussion on real estate deals. It follows that she presently aims to try out new kinds of material, turning outward to other people's stories, at a time when she states that contemporary political climate renders personal narrative redundant.

Several Eras, One Unescapable Past

The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, spanning multiple eras – all unable to escape their backgrounds. We encounter the narrative about characters Emma and Jasper, based on Kraus's parents, transitioning from the Bronx to a pastoral setting. There is the account of Kraus, in the persona of protagonist Catt Greene, grappling with the belated success of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction her husband Paul. The third thread involves the story of the murder of one lost young man by another in a town mostly forsaken by liberal ideals only 80 miles from Catt's rural residence in a remote part of Minnesota.

As a reader fond of polished prose of the kind Kraus typically rejects, I was seduced by the literary tone of the initial segment.

As someone who reads drawn to precise prose of the style that Kraus tends to eschew, I was captivated by the literary tone of the opening segment. It exhibits a new quality of attentiveness that accommodates trivial aspects, like the container that the protagonist as a child pries out of frozen water at the start of the story, assisted by her cherished parent. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she exclaims; "a lovely toy", he replies, "the elliptical meanings of words circulating in their speech like hard candy". Kraus writes Emma's story with curiosity and intimacy. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not hers, exactly."

Frustration and Disruption

I was fated to feel let down when I wished this different style could continue through the novel. The author states here that she dislikes the satisfaction readers like me have derived from I Love Dick; she's committed to disruption, to the unpolished style she shares with her inspiration Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her earlier works reasserts itself in the middle section. The protagonist is attempting to do up three dozen dilapidated units in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while moving between Minnesota and LA, unable to aid Paul control his drinking. She feels helpless as Paul cycles through poorly supported positions as an substance abuse counselor in a society propelled by the hostility and dread that powers an electoral success. There are several pages about Catt being cancelled on Twitter, her listed profession modified from "writer" to "real estate holder" on the online encyclopedia. The author still appears to invest excessive emotion about this. In a moment she says that she's researching the homicide so that before departing the state, "she might be able to learn something about an the United States that her social media opponents would be unable to grasp, would overlook entirely".

The Homicide Account

Thus we arrive to the actual killing – and the titular day passed by the deceased with the killer and his companions. Kraus has compelling foundational content, and knows hour by hour what transpired when Brandon came to visit Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she sold sex pictures. He anticipated intimacy but seems affably to have spent the day in the company of her associates, mooching around fixing his automobile and paying for snacks and drugs, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's partner Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has often been institutionalized for violent rage.

Obsession and Unfinished Business

Catt gets obsessed by the account, and I found myself captivated by the way that her twin drives towards responsible documentation and reckless transgression wrestle in this part. Yet I wished her to explore more thoroughly 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. Kraus tells us that Catt converses with Brittney in jail, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. The whole section feels strangely incomplete, to the point that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par