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The Four Spent the Day Together centers on characters pursuing new beginnings, trying to break free from substance abuse or abusive marriages, only to find hope curdling into aggression. Chris Kraus frequently uses the phrase "fresh start", making it intentionally weary through recurring use. Sentences like "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They opted for a clean break" recur in the text. Meanwhile, she appears to be undertaking her personal new beginning, as this appears a new kind of book – fact-based, authentically narrative. However it reveals itself to be packed with the familiar conflicts and styles as past novels.

From Chance Novelist to Renowned Book

Chris Kraus started out as an artist who became a writer almost accidentally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, which was composed of letters to an unreceptive lover, elevating personal female narrative from self-debasement into defiance. She continued writing, but the following three compelling and abrasive novels did not possess the impact and rawness that the epistolary style infused into the tone of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her identity as a renegade artist who had become a major property owner, so there was much discussion on property transactions. It is logical that she presently aims to explore different types of content, directing her gaze to the experiences of others, at a period in which she states that current political era turns intimate literature unnecessary.

Three Generations, One Unescapable Past

The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, encompassing several time periods – each trapped by their pasts. The book includes the tale of characters Emma and Jasper, based on Kraus's parents, relocating from the Bronx to the Connecticut countryside. Additionally the narrative of the author, in the persona of a figure named Catt Greene, confronting the late recognition 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 directionless individual by another in a locality long abandoned by forward-thinking policies only a brief drive from Catt's cottage in a remote part of Minnesota.

For this reader attracted to polished prose of the sort Kraus tends to eschew, I was seduced by the literary tone of the first section.

Being a reader who favors crafted language of the variety that Kraus herself usually avoids, I was seduced by the storytelling approach of the initial part. It possesses a new quality of attentiveness that makes room for small details, like the bucket that the young Catt pries out of frozen water at the start of the story, assisted by her adored dad. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she exclaims; "a nice toy", he replies, "the elliptical meanings of words circulating in their speech like hard candy". The author narrates the tale of Emma with interest and closeness. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not precisely her dream."

Disappointment and Disjunction

I was bound to become frustrated when I hoped this different style could continue through the novel. Kraus notes here that she is annoyed by the pleasure those who appreciate polished prose have gotten from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to fragmentation, to the unpolished style she has in common with her idol writer Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her past books returns in the middle section. Catt Greene is attempting to do up 36 run-down apartments in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while traveling between two different states, failing to help Paul manage his alcohol use. She is overwhelmed as Paul cycles through underfunded jobs as an recovery specialist in a environment fueled by the rage and anxiety that drives Trump's victory. A significant portion discusses about Catt's social media ostracism on a platform, her occupation changed from "writer" to "real estate holder" on Wikipedia. Kraus still seems to be overly concerned about this. At one point she says that she's investigating the murder so that before exiting the region, "she might be able to learn something about an the United States that her online critics would not understand, would overlook entirely".

The Homicide Account

So then we come to the actual killing – and the eponymous day spent by the deceased with the perpetrator and his companions. The author possesses compelling foundational content, and knows hour by hour what happened when a man named Brandon came to visit Brittney after connecting via an application where she sold sex pictures. He was hoping for sex but appears congenially to have passed the day alongside her friends, wandering about fixing his automobile and paying for snacks and drugs, before being murdered by Brittney's partner Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has repeatedly received inpatient care for violent rage.

Preoccupation and Open Ends

Catt develops an obsession by the story, and I was fascinated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards accurate chronicling and daring boundary-pushing clash in this segment. Yet I wished her to go further into her own obsessions here. The compelling persona is the character Brittney, who comes alive in part due to Catt seeing herself in her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual spiraling out of control in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus tells us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in jail, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. This entire part feels strangely incomplete, to the degree that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par