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The Four Spent the Day Together centers on individuals seeking clean slates, attempting to leave behind substance abuse or harmful partnerships, only to witness hope devolve into violence. Chris Kraus frequently uses the phrase "fresh start", transforming it into willfully cynical through recurring use. Phrases such as "He aimed to start over" and "They decided to make a fresh start" are scattered across the text. Meanwhile, Kraus herself seems to be making her personal new beginning, since this seems a novel form of writing – observational, authentically narrative. But then it turns out to be laden with the recurring issues and approaches as her previous works.

From Accidental Writer to Renowned Book

The writer began as an visual artist who transitioned to writing almost accidentally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, which was composed of letters to an unreceptive lover, elevating intimate women's literature from abjection into assassination. She continued writing, but the next trio of fascinating and rebarbative novels did not possess the shock and immediacy that the letter form infused into the voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her role as a nonconformist creator who had become a major property owner, so there was significant attention on housing investments. It follows that she currently desires to explore different types of content, turning outward to the experiences of others, at a time when she claims that Trumpian politics renders personal narrative unnecessary.

Several Eras, Shared Inescapable History

The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, covering several time periods – each trapped by their histories. There is the narrative about characters Emma and Jasper, based on her own mother and father, relocating from the New York borough to a pastoral setting. Additionally the narrative of the author, in the guise of a figure named Catt Greene, reckoning with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her addict husband a man named Paul. Finally the account of a killing of one directionless individual by another in a town mostly forsaken by progressive politics only a short distance from Catt's rural residence in the Minnesota countryside.

From my perspective as a reader drawn to refined literature of the kind the author herself often avoids, I was enchanted by the narrative style of the initial segment.

Being a reader who favors crafted language of the style that the author usually avoids, I was won over by the literary tone of the initial part. It possesses a fresh level of observation that allows space for minutiae, like the pail that the youthful Catt frees from the ice at the start of the story, aided by her cherished parent. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she exclaims; "a nice toy", he answers, "the ambiguous meanings of language tumbling in their mouths like piece candy". Kraus writes the tale of Emma with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not hers, exactly."

Letdown and Fragmentation

I was bound to become frustrated when I hoped this new voice could persist to the end. Kraus notes here that she dislikes the pleasure those who appreciate polished prose have taken from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disruption, to the untidy aesthetics she echoes from her hero Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her past books reasserts itself in the second segment. Catt Greene is attempting to do up 36 run-down apartments in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while moving between Minnesota and LA, failing to help Paul curb his addiction. She experiences powerlessness as Paul moves between underfunded jobs as an substance abuse counselor in a environment propelled by the hostility and dread that powers an electoral success. A significant portion discusses about the protagonist facing cancellation on Twitter, her occupation changed from "author" to "real estate holder" on a reference site. Kraus still seems to be overly concerned about this. On one occasion she says that she's looking into the killing 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 not even see".

The Killing Story

Thus we arrive to the murder itself – and the titular day spent by the murdered individual with the killer and his associates. Kraus has compelling foundational content, and reconstructs step by step what transpired when a man named Brandon came to meet Brittney after meeting her on an app where she marketed explicit images. He anticipated intimacy but seems amiably to have occupied the day alongside her friends, mooching around getting his car mended and funding treats and narcotics, before being murdered by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has repeatedly received inpatient care for fits of anger.

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 reckless transgression tussle in this section. However, I would have preferred her to go further into her individual preoccupations here. The standout figure is the character Brittney, who gains dimension partly through Catt's identification with her – another bright, bullied girl going off the rails in a struggling, neglected community. The author informs us that Catt converses with Brittney in detention, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. This entire part feels curiously unresolved, to the point that her narrative ends almost mid-par