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The Four Spent the Day Together is populated with protagonists seeking clean slates, trying to break free from addictions or toxic relationships, only to find hope curdling into aggression. Kraus frequently uses the phrase "fresh start", transforming it into deliberately jaded through recurring use. Sentences like "He aimed to start over" and "They decided to make a fresh start" recur in the text. Meanwhile, Kraus herself is embarking on her personal new beginning, because this appears a novel form of writing – fact-based, genuinely novelistic. However it turns out to be packed with the familiar conflicts and approaches as past novels.

From Accidental Writer to Iconic Work

Chris Kraus started out as an artist who became a writer unintentionally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, which was composed of missives to a distant beloved, elevating personal female narrative from abjection into assassination. She continued writing, but the three subsequent engaging and challenging novels did not possess the power and directness that the epistolary style imparted to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her role as a nonconformist creator who had turned into a extensive real estate holder, so there was significant attention on property transactions. It makes sense that she currently desires to explore different types of content, looking outwards to external narratives, at a time when she asserts that contemporary political climate makes confessional writing redundant.

Several Eras, Shared Inescapable History

The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, covering several time periods – all unable to escape their histories. The book includes the story of characters Emma and Jasper, versions of the author's parents, moving from the urban environment to rural Connecticut. There is the account of Kraus, in the guise of a figure named Catt Greene, confronting the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction her husband Paul. The third thread involves the narrative of a homicide of one lost young man by another in a town long abandoned by liberal ideals only a short distance from the protagonist's home in rural Minnesota.

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

As someone who reads who appreciates crafted language of the style that Kraus usually avoids, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the first section. There is a new quality of attentiveness that accommodates trivial aspects, like the container that the young Catt frees from the ice at the beginning of the narrative, helped by her beloved father. "Look, an ice toy!" she says; "a great plaything", he answers, "the ambiguous meanings of language rolling around in their mouths like piece candy". The author narrates the tale of Emma with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not hers, exactly."

Letdown and Fragmentation

I was bound to become frustrated when I hoped this different style could continue through the novel. The author states here that she is annoyed by the enjoyment audiences such as myself have gotten from I Love Dick; she's devoted to fragmentation, to the messy artistic approach she echoes from her hero Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her past books returns in the middle section. Catt Greene is attempting to do up multiple decrepit residences in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while shuttling between the Midwest and the West Coast, unable to aid Paul manage his alcohol use. She feels helpless as Paul cycles through underfunded jobs as an substance abuse counselor in a environment propelled by the rage and anxiety that drives an electoral success. There are several pages about Catt's social media ostracism on social media, her professional designation altered from "writer" to "landlord" on Wikipedia. Kraus still seems to be overly concerned about this. At one point she states that she's looking into the killing so that before exiting the region, "she might be able to learn something about an the nation that her social media opponents would be unable to grasp, would overlook entirely".

The Killing Story

Thus we arrive to the homicide in question – and the titular day spent by the victim with the killer and his companions. Kraus has great source material, and reconstructs step by step what occurred as Brandon came to meet Brittney after meeting her on an app where she sold sex pictures. He anticipated intimacy but appears congenially to have passed the day with her companions, mooching around having his vehicle repaired and paying for snacks and drugs, before being murdered by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has often been institutionalized for aggressive outbursts.

Obsession and Unfinished Business

The protagonist becomes fixated by the account, and I was fascinated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards responsible documentation and audacious rule-breaking wrestle in this part. But I'd have liked her to delve deeper into her individual preoccupations here. The compelling persona is Brittney herself, who comes alive in part due to Catt seeing herself in her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman going off the rails in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus tells us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in prison, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The complete segment feels strangely incomplete, to the point that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par