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The Four Spent the Day Together is populated with individuals pursuing fresh starts, trying to break free from drugs or harmful partnerships, only to see hope turn into aggression. Chris Kraus frequently uses the phrase "new beginning", making it intentionally weary through constant reiteration. Examples include "He could make a fresh start" and "They chose to begin anew" recur in the story. At the same time, she appears to be undertaking her individual reinvention, since this seems a new kind of book – observational, truly literary. But then it proves to be laden with the recurring issues and aesthetics as her previous works.

From Unplanned Author to Iconic Work

The writer began as an artist who transitioned to writing somewhat by chance with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, structured as missives to a distant beloved, converting personal female narrative from self-debasement into assassination. She persisted as a writer, but the following three compelling and abrasive novels lacked the shock and immediacy that the letter form brought to the tone of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her role as a maverick maker who had evolved into a major property owner, so there was considerable focus on housing investments. It is logical that she now wants to explore fresh narrative sources, looking outwards to the experiences of others, at a time when she states that current political era turns intimate literature redundant.

Several Eras, Collective Unavoidable Background

The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, encompassing multiple eras – none able to break free from their backgrounds. The book includes the narrative about characters Emma and Jasper, based on her own mother and father, moving from the Bronx to a pastoral setting. There is the story of Kraus herself, in the persona of protagonist Catt Greene, reckoning with the belated success of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her addict husband Paul. And there is the account of a killing of one directionless individual by another in a locality mostly forsaken by liberal ideals only a brief drive from Catt's cottage in rural Minnesota.

For this reader attracted to polished prose of the sort the author herself often avoids, I was captivated by the narrative style of the opening part.

Being a reader drawn to precise prose of the variety that Kraus tends to eschew, I was captivated by the literary tone of the opening segment. There is a novel degree of detail that makes room for trivial aspects, like the pail that the youthful Catt dislodges from ice at the beginning of the narrative, assisted by her beloved father. "I found an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a lovely toy", he answers, "the ambiguous meanings of language circulating in their speech like hard candy". The author narrates Emma's story with interest and closeness. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not precisely her dream."

Frustration and Disruption

I was destined to be disappointed when I hoped this fresh tone could persist to the end. Kraus says here that she resents the satisfaction audiences such as myself have gotten from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disruption, to the untidy aesthetics she echoes from her idol writer Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence 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 the Midwest and the West Coast, unsuccessful in assisting her husband curb his addiction. She is overwhelmed as her spouse cycles through low-resource employment as an substance abuse counselor in a society driven by the hostility and dread that underpins an electoral success. Multiple pages are devoted about the protagonist facing cancellation on Twitter, her professional designation altered from "writer" to "landlord" on a reference site. The author still appears to be overly concerned about this. At one point she says that she's researching the homicide so that before leaving Minnesota, "she could potentially understand something about an the nation that her Twitter detractors would be unable to grasp, would overlook entirely".

The Killing Story

Then we reach to the murder itself – and the eponymous day experienced by the victim with the murderer and his associates. Kraus has compelling foundational content, and reconstructs step by step what occurred as a man named Brandon came to visit Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she offered adult photos. He was hoping for sex but appears congenially to have passed the day alongside her friends, wandering about having his vehicle repaired and paying for snacks and drugs, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has repeatedly received inpatient care for fits of anger.

Fascination and Incompletion

The protagonist becomes fixated by the story, and I was fascinated by the way that her twin drives towards accurate chronicling and audacious rule-breaking clash in this segment. However, I would have preferred her to explore more thoroughly her personal fixations here. The compelling persona is Brittney, who gains dimension in part due to Catt's identification with her – another bright, bullied girl going off the rails in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus tells us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in prison, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The whole section feels oddly unfinished, to the degree that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par