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The Four Spent the Day Together features protagonists chasing after new beginnings, struggling to escape substance abuse or toxic relationships, only to witness hope devolve into violence. The author often employs the phrase "fresh start", rendering it deliberately jaded through its repetitions. Phrases such as "He could make a fresh start" and "They decided to make a fresh start" are scattered across the story. At the same time, Kraus herself appears to be undertaking her own fresh start, since this appears a new kind of book – observational, authentically narrative. But then it turns out to be laden with the familiar conflicts and styles as past novels.

From Chance Novelist to Iconic Work

Chris Kraus was originally an artist who transitioned to writing almost accidentally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, structured as missives to a distant beloved, elevating intimate women's literature from self-debasement into assassination. She persisted as a writer, but the three subsequent engaging and challenging novels did not possess the shock and immediacy that the correspondence format infused into the narrative voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her position as a nonconformist creator who had evolved into a major property owner, so there was considerable focus on real estate deals. It is logical that she currently desires to try out new kinds of material, looking outwards to the experiences of others, at a period in which she states that Trumpian politics renders personal narrative obsolete.

Three Generations, Shared Inescapable History

The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, spanning multiple eras – none able to break free from their pasts. We encounter the narrative about a couple named Emma and Jasper, based on her own mother and father, moving from the urban environment to a pastoral setting. Then there is the narrative of the author, in the character of Catt Greene, confronting the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction Paul. The third thread involves the story of the murder of one troubled youth by another in a town long abandoned by forward-thinking policies only a short distance from the protagonist's home in rural Minnesota.

As a reader drawn to refined literature of the type Kraus herself often avoids, I was captivated by the narrative style of the opening part.

Being a reader who favors honed writing of the kind that the author often disregards, I was seduced by the storytelling approach of the first section. It exhibits a novel degree of detail that allows space for small details, like the bucket that the young Catt frees from the ice at the opening of the book, assisted by her adored dad. "Look, an ice toy!" she declares; "a great plaything", he answers, "the elliptical meanings of words tumbling in their mouths like piece candy". She tells the tale of Emma with interest and closeness. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not hers, exactly."

Letdown and Fragmentation

I was bound to become frustrated when I wished this fresh tone could last out the book. Kraus says here that she dislikes the pleasure readers like me have derived from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disruption, to the untidy aesthetics she echoes from her hero writer Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her past books reasserts itself in the second segment. The protagonist is working on refurbishing multiple decrepit residences in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while traveling between Minnesota and LA, unsuccessful in assisting Paul control his drinking. She feels helpless as her spouse transitions between underfunded jobs as an addiction therapist in a world driven by the rage and anxiety that powers Trump's victory. A significant portion discusses about the protagonist facing cancellation on Twitter, her professional designation altered from "author" to "real estate holder" on Wikipedia. Kraus still seems to care a little too much about this. On one occasion she says that she's investigating the murder so that before departing the state, "she might be able to learn something about an the nation that her social media opponents would be unable to grasp, would not even perceive".

The Murder Narrative

So then we come to the actual killing – and the referenced day passed by the murdered individual with the murderer and his companions. Kraus utilizes compelling foundational content, and details moment by moment what occurred as Brandon came to meet Brittney after meeting her on an app where she sold sex pictures. He was hoping for sex but appears congenially to have passed the day with her companions, wandering about having his vehicle repaired and covering the cost of food and substances, before being killed by gunfire by her romantic interest Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has repeatedly received inpatient care for aggressive outbursts.

Obsession and Unfinished Business

Catt gets obsessed by the story, and I found myself captivated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards ethical reporting and reckless transgression clash in this segment. But I'd have liked her to go further into her individual preoccupations here. The most interesting character is Brittney, who gains dimension in part due to Catt's identification with her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman derailing in a troubled, forgotten town. The author informs us that Catt converses with Brittney in prison, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The complete segment feels curiously unresolved, to the degree that her narrative ends almost mid-par