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The Four Spent the Day Together is populated with individuals seeking fresh starts, struggling to escape addictions or abusive marriages, only to see hope turn into conflict. Chris Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "fresh start", rendering it willfully cynical through constant reiteration. Phrases such as "He aimed to start over" and "They chose to begin anew" are scattered across the story. Meanwhile, she is embarking on her personal new beginning, since this presents as a novel form of writing – observational, truly literary. But then it reveals itself to be filled with the same dilemmas and aesthetics as earlier books.

From Accidental Writer to Renowned Book

Kraus began as an creative who became a writer unintentionally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, structured as missives to a distant beloved, transforming confessional female writing from humiliation into defiance. She persisted as a writer, but the next trio of engaging and challenging novels did not possess the power and directness that the correspondence format brought to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her role as a nonconformist creator who had turned into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was considerable focus on property transactions. It follows that she currently desires to experiment with different types of content, looking outwards to external narratives, at a period in which she asserts that current political era turns intimate literature obsolete.

Multiple Generations, Collective Unavoidable Background

The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, spanning several time periods – each trapped by their histories. We encounter the tale of a couple named Emma and Jasper, versions of her own mother and father, relocating from the New York borough to the Connecticut countryside. Additionally the narrative of the author, in the character of Catt Greene, confronting the belated success of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction Paul. The third thread involves the account of a killing of one directionless individual by another in a locality largely deserted by liberal ideals only a brief drive from Catt's cottage in the Minnesota countryside.

From my perspective as a reader fond of polished prose of the sort Kraus herself typically rejects, I was seduced by the literary tone of the opening part.

Being a reader drawn to crafted language of the variety that Kraus herself often disregards, I was seduced by the literary tone of the first section. There is a fresh level of observation that allows space for minutiae, like the container that the youthful Catt dislodges from ice at the start of the story, aided by her adored dad. "I found an ice toy!" she says; "a nice toy", he answers, "the ambiguous meanings of language rolling around in their mouths like piece candy". The author narrates Emma's narrative with interest and closeness. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not hers, exactly."

Disappointment and Disjunction

I was bound to become frustrated when I expected this different style could continue through the novel. Kraus notes here that she resents the enjoyment those who appreciate polished prose have taken from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disruption, to the messy artistic approach she echoes from her inspiration writer Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her previous novels returns in the second segment. Catt Greene is trying to renovate 36 run-down apartments in the city's most challenging districts while moving between the Midwest and the West Coast, unsuccessful in assisting Paul control his drinking. She feels helpless as Paul cycles through poorly supported positions as an recovery specialist in a environment driven by the hostility and dread that drives Trump's victory. There are several pages about Catt being cancelled on social media, her professional designation altered from "writer" to "real estate holder" on Wikipedia. The author still appears to be overly concerned about this. At one point she remarks 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 social media opponents would be unable to grasp, would overlook entirely".

The Homicide Account

Thus we arrive to the actual killing – and the titular day spent by the murdered individual with the killer and his friends. The author possesses excellent raw material, and reconstructs step by step what occurred as the victim Brandon came to meet Brittney after connecting via an application where she offered adult photos. He anticipated intimacy but appears congenially to have passed the day alongside her friends, mooching around fixing his automobile and funding treats and narcotics, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's partner a man named Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has repeatedly received inpatient care for fits of anger.

Preoccupation and Open Ends

Catt gets obsessed by the narrative, and I was intrigued by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards ethical reporting and reckless transgression clash in this segment. However, I would have preferred her to delve deeper into her own obsessions here. The standout figure is the character Brittney, who comes alive in part due to Catt's identification with her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual derailing in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus notes that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in prison, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The whole section feels oddly unfinished, to the point that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par