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The Four Spent the Day Together centers on individuals pursuing new beginnings, attempting to leave behind addictions or harmful partnerships, only to find hope curdling into conflict. The author repeatedly invokes the phrase "fresh start", rendering it willfully cynical through recurring use. Examples include "He aimed to start over" and "They decided to make a fresh start" recur in the text. At the same time, Kraus herself seems to be making her personal new beginning, because this appears a novel form of writing – fact-based, genuinely novelistic. But then it reveals itself to be filled with the same dilemmas and approaches as her previous works.

From Chance Novelist to Renowned Book

Chris Kraus started out as an visual artist who became a writer somewhat by chance with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, made up of missives to a distant beloved, converting confessional female writing from humiliation into assassination. She persisted as a writer, but the three subsequent fascinating and rebarbative novels lacked the impact and rawness that the epistolary style imparted to the tone of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her position as a nonconformist creator who had turned into a major property owner, so there was significant attention on real estate deals. It follows that she currently desires to explore different types of content, turning outward to external narratives, at a moment when she states that Trumpian politics makes confessional writing obsolete.

Three Generations, Shared Inescapable History

The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, spanning several time periods – all unable to escape their backgrounds. We encounter the story of Emma and Jasper, versions of her own mother and father, moving from the urban environment to a pastoral setting. Additionally the narrative of the author, in the persona of protagonist Catt Greene, grappling with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her addict husband her husband Paul. The third thread involves the narrative of a homicide of one lost young man by another in a locality largely deserted by liberal ideals only a short distance from Catt's cottage in rural Minnesota.

From my perspective as a reader drawn to polished prose of the type Kraus tends to eschew, I was seduced by the narrative style of the first section.

Being a reader who favors crafted language of the kind that Kraus herself often disregards, I was won over by the storytelling approach of the first section. There is a new quality of attentiveness that accommodates small details, like the container that the young Catt dislodges from ice at the opening of the book, aided by her beloved father. "Look, an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a great plaything", he answers, "the nuanced interpretations of terms rolling around in their mouths like sweet treats". Kraus writes Emma's narrative with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not hers, exactly."

Letdown and Fragmentation

I was destined to be disappointed when I hoped this different style could last out the book. Kraus says here that she is annoyed by the enjoyment those who appreciate polished prose have derived from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disruption, to the messy artistic approach she has in common with her hero writer Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her earlier works comes back in the middle section. Catt is working on refurbishing three dozen dilapidated units in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while traveling between Minnesota and LA, unable to aid her husband curb his addiction. She feels helpless as Paul moves between underfunded jobs as an addiction therapist in a environment fueled by the hostility and dread that powers a political win. Multiple pages are devoted about the protagonist facing cancellation on social media, her professional designation altered from "writer" to "real estate holder" on Wikipedia. She still gives the impression to be overly concerned about this. On one occasion she states that she's looking into the killing so that before leaving Minnesota, "she may grasp something about an the United States that her social media opponents would be unable to grasp, would overlook entirely".

The Killing Story

So then we come to the homicide in question – and the eponymous day spent by the victim with the killer and his associates. The author possesses great source material, and reconstructs step by step what occurred as a man named Brandon came to visit Brittney after meeting her on an app where she marketed explicit images. He anticipated intimacy but seems amiably to have occupied the day with her companions, loitering having his vehicle repaired and funding treats and narcotics, before being murdered by Brittney's partner a man named Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has frequently been hospitalised for violent rage.

Fascination and Incompletion

Catt gets obsessed by the account, and I was fascinated by the way that her twin drives towards responsible documentation and audacious rule-breaking clash in this segment. Yet I wished her to delve deeper into her individual preoccupations here. The compelling persona is Brittney, who comes alive partially because of the protagonist's connection to her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman spiraling out of control in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus tells us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in prison, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The whole section feels oddly unfinished, to the degree that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par