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The Four Spent the Day Together features protagonists pursuing new beginnings, struggling to escape substance abuse or toxic relationships, only to find hope curdling into conflict. Chris Kraus frequently uses the phrase "fresh start", transforming it into intentionally weary through its repetitions. Sentences like "He could make a fresh start" and "They opted for a clean break" recur in the text. At the same time, the author herself is embarking on her own fresh start, since this presents as a novel form of writing – observational, truly literary. But then it turns out to be filled with the same dilemmas and aesthetics as past novels.

From Chance Novelist to Iconic Work

Kraus started out as an visual artist who became a writer almost accidentally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, made up of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, transforming intimate women's literature from abjection into defiance. She persisted as a writer, but the next trio of compelling and abrasive novels missed the power and directness that the letter form imparted to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her identity as a maverick maker who had evolved into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was significant attention on housing investments. It makes sense that she currently desires to explore fresh narrative sources, turning outward to external narratives, at a time when she states that current political era turns intimate literature obsolete.

Multiple Generations, Shared Inescapable History

The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, covering multiple eras – none able to break free from their pasts. The book includes the tale of a couple named Emma and Jasper, based on the author's parents, relocating from the New York borough to the Connecticut countryside. Additionally the narrative of the author, in the persona of a figure named Catt Greene, grappling with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her substance-dependent spouse Paul. The third thread involves the narrative of a homicide of one directionless individual by another in a locality largely deserted by forward-thinking policies only 80 miles from Catt's cottage in the Minnesota countryside.

As a reader fond of honed writing of the kind Kraus typically rejects, I was enchanted by the narrative style of the initial segment.

As someone who reads drawn to honed writing of the kind that Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was won over by the novelistic voice of the first section. It exhibits a new quality of attentiveness that accommodates small details, like the pail that the protagonist as a child frees from the ice at the start of the story, assisted by her beloved father. "I found an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a great plaything", he responds, "the elliptical meanings of words circulating in their speech like sweet treats". She tells Emma's story with interest and closeness. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not hers, exactly."

Letdown and Fragmentation

I was fated to feel let down when I hoped this new voice could continue through the novel. Kraus says here that she is annoyed by the satisfaction those who appreciate polished prose have gotten from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disruption, to the messy artistic approach she echoes from her hero writer Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her earlier works reasserts itself in the central part. Catt is working on refurbishing 36 run-down apartments in the city's most challenging districts while traveling between two different states, unsuccessful in assisting Paul manage his alcohol use. She feels helpless as her spouse transitions between low-resource employment as an addiction therapist in a society driven by the rage and anxiety that underpins Trump's victory. There are several pages about Catt being cancelled on Twitter, her professional designation altered from "author" to "real estate holder" on a reference site. The author still appears to invest excessive emotion about this. At one point she remarks that she's researching the homicide so that before exiting the region, "she may grasp something about an America that her social media opponents would be unable to grasp, would not even perceive".

The Murder Narrative

Then we reach to the homicide in question – and the eponymous day spent by the deceased with the murderer and his companions. Kraus utilizes great source material, and details moment by moment what occurred as the victim Brandon came to meet Brittney after meeting her on an app where she offered adult photos. He anticipated intimacy but seems amiably to have occupied the day with her companions, wandering about having his vehicle repaired and funding treats and narcotics, before being shot by Brittney's partner Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has often been institutionalized for aggressive outbursts.

Obsession and Unfinished Business

Catt develops an obsession by the story, and I was intrigued by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards accurate chronicling and daring boundary-pushing clash in this segment. But I'd have liked her to explore more thoroughly her individual preoccupations here. The compelling persona is the character Brittney, who comes alive partially because of the protagonist's connection to her – another bright, bullied girl derailing in a struggling, neglected community. The author informs us that Catt converses with Brittney in jail, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. This entire part feels oddly unfinished, to the extent that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par