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The Four Spent the Day Together features protagonists chasing after clean slates, attempting to leave behind drugs or harmful partnerships, only to see hope turn into violence. Kraus often employs the phrase "fresh start", making it intentionally weary through its repetitions. Examples include "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They opted for a clean break" are scattered across the narrative. And yet, she is embarking on her personal new beginning, as this seems a new kind of book – observational, authentically narrative. Yet it turns out to be filled with the familiar conflicts and aesthetics as earlier books.

From Unplanned Author to Renowned Book

Chris Kraus started out as an artist who transitioned to writing unintentionally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, made up of letters to an unreceptive lover, elevating intimate women's literature from abjection into defiance. She continued writing, but the three subsequent fascinating and rebarbative novels did not possess the power and directness that the correspondence format imparted to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her position as a maverick maker who had turned into a extensive real estate holder, so there was significant attention on housing investments. It makes sense that she now wants to experiment with fresh narrative sources, turning outward to the experiences of others, at a period in which she asserts that contemporary political climate makes confessional writing unnecessary.

Several Eras, One Unescapable Past

The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, covering multiple eras – each trapped by their histories. We encounter the story of Emma and Jasper, based on Kraus's parents, moving from the urban environment to the Connecticut countryside. Then there is the story of Kraus herself, in the character of protagonist Catt Greene, confronting the late recognition of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her addict husband Paul. The third thread involves the narrative of a homicide of one lost young man by another in a town long abandoned by liberal ideals only 80 miles from Catt's rural residence in the Minnesota countryside.

As a reader drawn to polished prose of the type the author herself tends to eschew, I was seduced by the narrative style of the initial segment.

Being a reader who appreciates precise prose of the kind that Kraus herself usually avoids, I was won over by the storytelling approach of the initial part. It exhibits a fresh level of observation that allows space for minutiae, like the bucket that the young Catt frees from the ice at the beginning of the narrative, aided by her beloved father. "I found an ice toy!" she says; "a great plaything", he answers, "the ambiguous meanings of language circulating in their speech like hard candy". The author narrates the tale of Emma with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not hers, exactly."

Frustration and Disruption

I was fated to feel let down when I wished this fresh tone could last out the book. The author states here that she dislikes the enjoyment those who appreciate polished prose have gotten from I Love Dick; she's committed to fragmentation, to the untidy aesthetics she has in common with her hero Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her past books returns in the middle section. The protagonist is working on refurbishing three dozen dilapidated units in the city's most challenging districts while moving between Minnesota and LA, unsuccessful in assisting her husband control his drinking. She feels helpless as Paul moves between low-resource employment as an addiction therapist in a society fueled by the rage and anxiety that powers an electoral success. A significant portion discusses about the protagonist facing cancellation on social media, her listed profession modified from "writer" to "landlord" on the online encyclopedia. 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 departing the state, "she might be able to learn something about an the United States that her Twitter detractors would not understand, would not even perceive".

The Killing Story

Then we reach to the homicide in question – and the titular day experienced by the murdered individual with the murderer and his associates. Kraus has great source material, and reconstructs step by step what happened when a man named Brandon came to meet Brittney after connecting via an application where she marketed explicit images. He anticipated intimacy but seems affably to have spent the day in the company of her associates, wandering about fixing his automobile and paying for snacks and drugs, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's partner Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has often been institutionalized for aggressive outbursts.

Fascination and Incompletion

The protagonist becomes fixated by the account, and I found myself captivated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards accurate chronicling and reckless transgression wrestle in this part. However, I would have preferred her to delve deeper into her individual preoccupations here. The standout figure is the character Brittney, who becomes vivid partially because of the protagonist's connection to her – another bright, bullied girl spiraling out of control in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus notes that Catt speaks to Brittney in jail, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. The complete segment feels strangely incomplete, to the extent that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par