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The Four Spent the Day Together features characters chasing after fresh starts, attempting to leave behind addictions or abusive marriages, only to find hope curdling into conflict. The author frequently uses the phrase "new beginning", rendering it willfully cynical through recurring use. Sentences like "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They opted for a clean break" are scattered across the narrative. Meanwhile, Kraus herself appears to be undertaking her individual reinvention, as this presents as a new kind of book – documentarian, authentically narrative. However it reveals itself to be packed with the recurring issues and aesthetics as her previous works.

From Chance Novelist to Cult Classic

Chris Kraus was originally an creative who entered the literary world unintentionally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, structured as epistles to an unresponsive love interest, elevating confessional female writing from abjection into defiance. She continued writing, but the three subsequent compelling and abrasive novels lacked the power and directness that the correspondence format imparted to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her identity as a renegade artist who had evolved into a major property owner, so there was significant attention on property transactions. It is logical that she presently aims to try out fresh narrative sources, turning outward to the experiences of others, at a time when she asserts that Trumpian politics renders personal narrative unnecessary.

Multiple Generations, Shared Inescapable History

The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, encompassing several time periods – all unable to escape their backgrounds. The book includes the story of Emma and Jasper, based on Kraus's parents, transitioning from the New York borough to the Connecticut countryside. Additionally the account of Kraus, in the guise of protagonist Catt Greene, reckoning with the belated success of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse a man named Paul. The third thread involves the narrative of a homicide of one directionless individual by another in a town mostly forsaken by forward-thinking policies only a short distance from Catt's cottage in rural Minnesota.

For this reader fond of honed writing of the type the author herself often avoids, I was enchanted by the novelistic voice of the initial segment.

As a reader drawn to precise prose of the kind that Kraus tends to eschew, I was won over by the novelistic voice of the initial part. It exhibits a new quality of attentiveness that accommodates minutiae, like the container that the protagonist as a child pries out of frozen water at the start of the story, aided by her adored dad. "Look, an ice toy!" she says; "a nice toy", he answers, "the elliptical meanings of words rolling around in their mouths like sweet treats". The author narrates Emma's story with interest and closeness. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not precisely her dream."

Letdown and Fragmentation

I was destined to be disappointed when I hoped this new voice could continue through the novel. Kraus notes here that she resents the enjoyment audiences such as myself have gotten from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disruption, to the untidy aesthetics she shares with her inspiration author Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her previous novels comes back in the second segment. Catt is working on refurbishing multiple decrepit residences in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while shuttling between two different states, unable to aid her husband control his drinking. She experiences powerlessness as Paul moves between poorly supported positions as an recovery specialist in a environment fueled by the rage and anxiety that powers an electoral success. There are several pages about Catt being cancelled on a platform, her occupation changed from "writer" to "landlord" on Wikipedia. Kraus still seems to be overly concerned about this. On one occasion she states that she's researching the homicide so that before exiting the region, "she may grasp something about an America that her online critics would fail to comprehend, would not even see".

The Killing Story

Thus we arrive to the actual killing – and the referenced day spent by the victim with the murderer and his companions. Kraus utilizes excellent raw material, and reconstructs step by step what transpired when Brandon came to meet 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, loitering getting his car mended and funding treats and narcotics, before being shot by her romantic interest Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has often been institutionalized for fits of anger.

Obsession and Unfinished Business

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 clash in this segment. However, I would have preferred her to delve deeper into her individual preoccupations here. The standout figure is the character Brittney, who becomes vivid partially because of the protagonist's connection to her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman derailing in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus notes that Catt speaks to Brittney in jail, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The complete segment feels curiously unresolved, to the point that her narrative ends almost mid-par