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The Four Spent the Day Together features individuals chasing after clean slates, attempting to leave behind drugs or harmful partnerships, only to witness hope devolve into conflict. The author repeatedly invokes the phrase "fresh start", rendering it willfully cynical through constant reiteration. Sentences like "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They opted for a clean break" recur in the text. At the same time, Kraus herself appears to be undertaking her own fresh start, because this seems a novel form of writing – observational, truly literary. However it proves to be packed with the same dilemmas and approaches as past novels.

From Accidental Writer to Iconic Work

Chris Kraus started out as an creative who became a writer somewhat by chance with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, which was composed of missives to a distant beloved, elevating personal female narrative from self-debasement into defiance. She kept producing books, but the three subsequent engaging and challenging novels lacked the shock and immediacy that the letter form imparted to the voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her identity as a nonconformist creator who had turned into a extensive real estate holder, so there was considerable focus on housing investments. It follows that she currently desires to try out fresh narrative sources, directing her gaze to external narratives, at a period in which she claims that contemporary political climate turns intimate literature obsolete.

Multiple Generations, Shared Inescapable History

The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, encompassing multiple eras – none able to break free from their histories. The book includes the narrative about Emma and Jasper, versions of Kraus's parents, relocating from the Bronx to a pastoral setting. There is the narrative of the author, in the guise of protagonist Catt Greene, grappling with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her addict husband Paul. Finally the account of a killing of one directionless individual by another in a locality mostly forsaken by progressive politics only a brief drive from Catt's cottage in a remote part of Minnesota.

As a reader fond of polished prose of the type Kraus herself often avoids, I was captivated by the literary tone of the first section.

As someone who reads who appreciates honed writing of the variety that Kraus herself often disregards, I was won over by the literary tone of the initial part. There is a new quality of attentiveness that accommodates minutiae, like the container that the young Catt frees from the ice at the opening of the book, aided by her cherished parent. "I found an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a great plaything", he answers, "the elliptical meanings of words rolling around in their mouths like hard candy". The author narrates Emma's story with interest and closeness. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not entirely her own."

Disappointment and Disjunction

I was destined to be disappointed when I wished this different style could continue through the novel. The author states here that she resents the satisfaction those who appreciate polished prose have taken from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disruption, to the untidy aesthetics she echoes from her inspiration writer Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her previous novels returns in the middle section. The protagonist is attempting to do up 36 run-down apartments in the city's most challenging districts while shuttling between Minnesota and LA, failing to help Paul curb his addiction. She feels helpless as Paul moves between low-resource employment as an substance abuse counselor in a environment propelled by the hostility and dread that underpins an electoral success. Multiple pages are devoted about the protagonist facing cancellation on Twitter, her occupation changed from "novelist" to "property owner" on the online encyclopedia. She still gives the impression to be overly concerned about this. In a moment she remarks that she's researching the homicide so that before exiting the region, "she might be able to learn something about an America that her social media opponents would fail to comprehend, would not even see".

The Homicide Account

Then we reach to the murder itself – and the titular day spent by the victim with the killer and his associates. Kraus has compelling foundational content, and details moment by moment what occurred as Brandon came to visit Brittney after meeting her on an app where she marketed explicit images. He sought a sexual encounter but appears congenially to have passed the day with her companions, loitering having his vehicle repaired and paying for snacks and drugs, before being shot by Brittney's boyfriend a man named Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has often been institutionalized for aggressive outbursts.

Preoccupation and Open Ends

Catt develops an obsession by the account, and I was fascinated by the way that her twin drives towards ethical reporting and audacious rule-breaking wrestle in this part. But I'd have liked her to go further into her individual preoccupations here. The most interesting character is Brittney herself, who comes alive partly through Catt's identification with her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual derailing in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus notes that Catt speaks to Brittney in jail, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The whole section feels curiously unresolved, to the degree that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par