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The Four Spent the Day Together is populated with individuals seeking fresh starts, struggling to escape drugs or harmful partnerships, only to witness hope devolve into violence. Chris Kraus often employs the phrase "fresh start", transforming it into intentionally weary through its repetitions. Phrases such as "He aimed to start over" and "They chose to begin anew" recur in the story. Meanwhile, she is embarking on her personal new beginning, because this seems a different type of work – documentarian, authentically narrative. But then it turns out to be packed with the same dilemmas and aesthetics as past novels.

From Chance Novelist to Iconic Work

The writer started out as an visual artist who entered the literary world unintentionally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, structured as epistles to an unresponsive love interest, converting personal female narrative from humiliation into defiance. She persisted as a writer, but the three subsequent engaging and challenging novels did not possess the impact and rawness that the correspondence format imparted to the tone of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her role 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 new kinds of material, turning outward to other people's stories, at a period in which she states that Trumpian politics makes confessional writing unnecessary.

Several Eras, Shared Inescapable History

The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, spanning three generations – each trapped by their histories. The book includes the story of Emma and Jasper, representations of Kraus's parents, moving from the New York borough to the Connecticut countryside. There is the account of Kraus, in the persona of Catt Greene, confronting the late recognition of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her partner struggling with addiction Paul. The third thread involves the account of a killing of one directionless individual by another in a locality long abandoned by progressive politics only a short distance from Catt's rural residence in rural Minnesota.

From my perspective as a reader attracted to honed writing of the sort Kraus tends to eschew, I was enchanted by the novelistic voice of the initial segment.

Being a reader drawn to honed writing of the style that the author usually avoids, I was seduced by the storytelling approach of the initial part. It exhibits a fresh level of observation that accommodates trivial aspects, like the container that the protagonist as a child dislodges from ice at the beginning of the narrative, assisted by her adored dad. "I found an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a lovely toy", he responds, "the nuanced interpretations of terms circulating in their speech like piece candy". Kraus writes Emma's narrative with inquiry and familiarity. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not entirely her own."

Letdown and Fragmentation

I was fated to feel let down when I wished this new voice could persist to the end. Kraus says here that she dislikes the pleasure audiences such as myself have taken from I Love Dick; she's committed to disruption, to the unpolished style she shares with her inspiration Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her previous novels reasserts itself 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, unsuccessful in assisting Paul curb his addiction. She feels helpless as Paul transitions between poorly supported positions as an addiction therapist in a society fueled by the hostility and dread that powers a political win. There are several pages about Catt being cancelled on Twitter, her listed profession modified from "author" to "real estate holder" on a reference site. Kraus still seems to invest excessive emotion about this. At one point she remarks that she's researching the homicide so that before exiting the region, "she might be able to learn something about an the United States that her Twitter detractors would fail to comprehend, would overlook entirely".

The Killing Story

Then we reach to the murder itself – and the eponymous day experienced by the murdered individual with the killer and his associates. Kraus has compelling foundational content, and details moment by moment what transpired when the victim Brandon came to see Brittney after connecting via an application where she sold sex pictures. He sought a sexual encounter but seems affably to have spent the day with her companions, loitering fixing his automobile and paying for snacks and drugs, before being murdered by her romantic interest Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has repeatedly received inpatient care for violent rage.

Obsession and Unfinished Business

Catt develops an obsession by the narrative, and I was intrigued by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards ethical reporting and reckless transgression wrestle in this part. Yet I wished her to go further into her individual preoccupations here. The most interesting character is the character Brittney, who comes alive in part due to Catt's identification with her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman spiraling out of control in a difficult, overlooked locality. The author informs us that Catt speaks to Brittney in jail, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. The whole section feels curiously unresolved, to the point that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par