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The Four Spent the Day Together features protagonists seeking fresh starts, struggling to escape substance abuse or toxic relationships, only to see hope turn into aggression. Chris Kraus frequently uses the phrase "fresh start", rendering it willfully cynical through recurring use. Examples include "He aimed to start over" and "They chose to begin anew" appear throughout the narrative. Meanwhile, the author herself seems to be making her personal new beginning, because this seems a new kind of book – documentarian, genuinely novelistic. Yet it proves to be filled with the same dilemmas and styles as earlier books.

From Unplanned Author to Renowned Book

Chris Kraus was originally an visual artist who entered the literary world almost accidentally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, which was composed of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, converting personal female narrative from abjection into defiance. She persisted as a writer, but the following three compelling and abrasive novels lacked the shock and immediacy that the correspondence format brought to the voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her role as a maverick maker who had turned into a major property owner, so there was significant attention on property transactions. It follows that she now wants to explore different types of content, looking outwards to external narratives, at a period in which she states that Trumpian politics renders personal narrative unnecessary.

Multiple Generations, Collective Unavoidable Background

The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, spanning three generations – each trapped by their backgrounds. There is the narrative about a couple named Emma and Jasper, representations of Kraus's parents, transitioning from the Bronx to a pastoral setting. There is the narrative of the author, in the character of a figure named Catt Greene, reckoning with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her partner struggling with addiction a man named Paul. And there is the story of the murder of one directionless individual by another in a community long abandoned by forward-thinking policies only a short distance from Catt's rural residence in rural Minnesota.

As a reader drawn to polished prose of the kind Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was seduced by the narrative style of the first section.

As someone who reads who favors honed writing of the kind that Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was captivated by the literary tone of the initial part. It possesses a new quality of attentiveness that accommodates trivial aspects, like the bucket that the protagonist as a child pries out of frozen water at the start of the story, aided by her cherished parent. "I found an ice toy!" she says; "a great plaything", he responds, "the elliptical meanings of words tumbling in their mouths like sweet treats". The author narrates Emma's story with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not entirely her own."

Letdown and Fragmentation

I was bound to become frustrated when I hoped this fresh tone could last out the book. Kraus says here that she resents the satisfaction audiences such as myself have derived from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disjunction, to the messy artistic approach she shares with her idol author Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her earlier works reasserts itself in the central part. The protagonist is attempting to do up multiple decrepit residences in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while shuttling between Minnesota and LA, failing to help Paul manage his alcohol use. She feels helpless as Paul transitions between poorly supported positions as an substance abuse counselor in a environment propelled by the rage and anxiety that drives Trump's victory. Multiple pages are devoted about the protagonist facing cancellation on social media, her occupation changed from "writer" to "property owner" on a reference site. Kraus still seems to be overly concerned about this. On one occasion she remarks that she's researching the homicide so that before exiting the region, "she may grasp something about an the United States that her online critics would be unable to grasp, would not even see".

The Homicide Account

So then we come to the murder itself – and the eponymous day experienced by the murdered individual with the killer and his associates. Kraus utilizes great source material, and reconstructs step by step what occurred as a man named Brandon came to see Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she sold sex pictures. He was hoping for sex but seems amiably to have occupied the day alongside her friends, loitering fixing his automobile and covering the cost of food and substances, before being killed by gunfire by her romantic interest Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has repeatedly received inpatient care for aggressive outbursts.

Fascination and Incompletion

The protagonist becomes fixated by the narrative, and I was fascinated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards ethical reporting and reckless transgression clash in this segment. However, I would have preferred her to delve deeper into her own obsessions here. The standout figure is Brittney herself, who comes alive partially because of Catt's identification with her – another bright, bullied girl spiraling out of control in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus notes that Catt converses with Brittney in prison, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. The whole section feels curiously unresolved, to the point that her narrative ends almost mid-par