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The Four Spent the Day Together is populated with protagonists seeking fresh starts, struggling to escape substance abuse or abusive marriages, only to witness hope devolve into conflict. Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "new beginning", rendering it willfully cynical through recurring use. Sentences like "He aimed to start over" and "They opted for a clean break" appear throughout the story. At the same time, the author herself is embarking on her individual reinvention, since this seems a new kind of book – fact-based, genuinely novelistic. However it proves to be laden with the same dilemmas and styles as past novels.

From Accidental Writer to Renowned Book

Chris Kraus started out as an creative who entered the literary world almost accidentally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, which was composed of missives to a distant beloved, transforming confessional female writing from self-debasement into defiance. She kept producing books, but the following three compelling and abrasive novels did not possess the impact and rawness that the correspondence format imparted to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her role as a maverick maker who had become a extensive real estate holder, so there was much discussion on property transactions. It makes sense that she presently aims to try out fresh narrative sources, directing her gaze to other people's stories, at a moment when she claims that current political era makes confessional writing obsolete.

Multiple Generations, One Unescapable Past

The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, covering several time periods – all unable to escape their pasts. We encounter the story of Emma and Jasper, versions of the author's parents, moving from the urban environment to a pastoral setting. Then there is the narrative of the author, in the character of protagonist Catt Greene, reckoning with the belated success of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her partner struggling with addiction a man named Paul. And there is the narrative of a homicide of one directionless individual by another in a locality long abandoned by progressive politics only 80 miles from Catt's rural residence in rural Minnesota.

From my perspective as a reader fond of polished prose of the type Kraus tends to eschew, I was captivated by the literary tone of the opening part.

As someone who reads drawn to honed writing of the variety that Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was won over by the literary tone of the opening segment. There is a new quality of attentiveness that allows space for trivial aspects, like the container that the protagonist as a child dislodges from ice at the opening of the book, assisted by her beloved father. "Look, an ice toy!" she says; "a lovely toy", he replies, "the nuanced interpretations of terms circulating in their speech like sweet treats". Kraus writes Emma's narrative with interest and closeness. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not hers, exactly."

Disappointment and Disjunction

I was bound to become frustrated when I hoped this fresh tone could last out the book. Kraus notes here that she is annoyed by the satisfaction those who appreciate polished prose have derived from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to fragmentation, to the unpolished style she echoes from her idol writer Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her earlier works reasserts itself in the middle section. The protagonist is attempting to do up three dozen dilapidated units in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while moving between the Midwest and the West Coast, unable to aid Paul control his drinking. She feels helpless as Paul transitions between low-resource employment as an substance abuse counselor in a environment propelled by the rage and anxiety that powers Trump's victory. A significant portion discusses about Catt's social media ostracism on a platform, her listed profession modified from "novelist" to "real estate holder" on Wikipedia. The author still appears to be overly concerned about this. At one point she states that she's researching the homicide so that before departing the state, "she could potentially understand something about an the nation that her online critics would fail to comprehend, would not even see".

The Murder Narrative

Thus we arrive to the murder itself – and the eponymous day passed by the victim with the killer and his friends. Kraus utilizes excellent raw material, and knows hour by hour what happened when Brandon came to visit 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 in the company of her associates, wandering about fixing his automobile and funding treats and narcotics, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's boyfriend a man named Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has repeatedly received inpatient care for fits of anger.

Obsession and Unfinished Business

Catt gets obsessed by the narrative, and I found myself captivated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards responsible documentation and reckless transgression clash in this segment. Yet I wished her to explore more thoroughly her own obsessions here. The most interesting character is Brittney herself, who gains dimension in part due to Catt's identification with her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman derailing in a difficult, overlooked locality. The author informs us that Catt converses with Brittney in detention, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The complete segment feels curiously unresolved, to the point that her narrative ends almost mid-par