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The Four Spent the Day Together centers on individuals pursuing clean slates, trying to break free from addictions or toxic relationships, only to see hope turn into violence. The author repeatedly invokes the phrase "fresh start", transforming it into deliberately jaded through its repetitions. Phrases such as "He aimed to start over" and "They decided to make a fresh start" are scattered across the story. Meanwhile, she is embarking on her personal new beginning, since this presents as a new kind of book – fact-based, genuinely novelistic. Yet it proves to be packed with the recurring issues and approaches as earlier books.

From Unplanned Author to Renowned Book

Chris Kraus was originally an visual artist who entered the literary world unintentionally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, which was composed of missives to a distant beloved, converting personal female narrative from self-debasement into rebellion. She kept producing books, but the next trio of fascinating and rebarbative novels did not possess the shock and immediacy that the correspondence format brought to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her position as a renegade artist who had turned into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was significant attention on property transactions. It is logical that she presently aims to explore new kinds of material, looking outwards to other people's stories, at a time when she asserts that current political era renders personal narrative obsolete.

Multiple Generations, One Unescapable Past

The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, encompassing multiple eras – each trapped by their backgrounds. We encounter the tale of characters Emma and Jasper, versions of Kraus's parents, transitioning from the urban environment to the Connecticut countryside. Then there is the narrative of the author, in the guise of protagonist Catt Greene, reckoning with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction a man named Paul. The third thread involves the story of the murder of one lost young man by another in a locality largely deserted by progressive politics only a brief drive from Catt's rural residence in the Minnesota countryside.

From my perspective as a reader attracted to polished prose of the type Kraus often avoids, I was seduced by the literary tone of the opening part.

As someone who reads drawn to crafted language of the style that Kraus herself usually avoids, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the first section. It possesses a new quality of attentiveness that allows space for 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 circulating in their speech like piece candy". The author narrates Emma's narrative with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not entirely her own."

Letdown and Fragmentation

I was destined to be disappointed when I expected this new voice could continue through the novel. The author states here that she resents the satisfaction readers like me have gotten from I Love Dick; she's committed to disjunction, to the messy artistic approach she echoes from her idol Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her past books returns in the second segment. Catt Greene is attempting to do up 36 run-down apartments in the city's most challenging districts while moving between two different states, failing to help her husband manage his alcohol use. She feels helpless as her spouse cycles through poorly supported positions as an addiction therapist in a environment driven by the anger and fear that powers an electoral success. A significant portion discusses about Catt being cancelled on Twitter, her professional designation altered from "author" to "real estate holder" on a reference site. She still gives the impression to invest excessive emotion about this. In a moment she states that she's investigating the murder 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 not even see".

The Killing Story

So then we come to the murder itself – and the eponymous day spent by the murdered individual with the killer and his companions. The author possesses excellent raw material, and details moment by moment what transpired when a man named Brandon came to visit Brittney after meeting her on an app where she offered adult photos. He sought a sexual encounter but appears congenially to have passed the day alongside her friends, mooching around having his vehicle repaired and funding treats and narcotics, before being murdered by Brittney's partner a man named Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has often been institutionalized for aggressive outbursts.

Preoccupation and Open Ends

Catt gets obsessed by the story, and I was fascinated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards responsible documentation and audacious rule-breaking clash in this segment. However, I would have preferred her to explore more thoroughly her personal fixations here. The most interesting character is the character Brittney, who becomes vivid partly through Catt's identification with her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman spiraling out of control in a struggling, neglected community. The author informs us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in detention, but she fails to enact these dialogues. This entire part feels oddly unfinished, to the degree that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par