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The Four Spent the Day Together features characters chasing after new beginnings, struggling to escape addictions or toxic relationships, only to witness hope devolve into violence. The author frequently uses the phrase "new beginning", transforming it into intentionally weary through recurring use. Phrases such as "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They decided to make a fresh start" are scattered across the story. At the same time, Kraus herself seems to be making her personal new beginning, as this appears a novel form of writing – fact-based, truly literary. Yet it turns out to be filled with the recurring issues and aesthetics as earlier books.

From Accidental Writer to Cult Classic

Chris Kraus started out as an artist who entered the literary world somewhat by chance with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, structured as epistles to an unresponsive love interest, transforming confessional female writing from abjection into defiance. She kept producing books, but the next trio of compelling and abrasive novels missed the shock and immediacy that the correspondence format infused into the tone of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her identity as a renegade artist who had evolved into a extensive real estate holder, so there was considerable focus on property transactions. It follows that she now wants to explore fresh narrative sources, directing her gaze to the experiences of others, at a time when she states that current political era turns intimate literature obsolete.

Three Generations, Shared Inescapable History

The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, encompassing three generations – each trapped by their histories. The book includes the tale of characters Emma and Jasper, versions of Kraus's parents, transitioning from the Bronx to a pastoral setting. Additionally the account of Kraus, in the persona of protagonist Catt Greene, confronting the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her addict husband a man named Paul. The third thread involves the narrative of a homicide of one lost young man by another in a locality mostly forsaken by progressive politics only a short distance from Catt's cottage in the Minnesota countryside.

For this reader fond of refined literature of the sort the author herself often avoids, I was seduced by the narrative style of the opening part.

As someone who reads who appreciates honed writing of the variety that the author often disregards, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the first section. It possesses a novel degree of detail that makes room for trivial aspects, like the bucket that the young Catt dislodges from ice at the opening of the book, aided by her adored dad. "Look, an ice toy!" she says; "a great plaything", he answers, "the nuanced interpretations of terms rolling around in their mouths like hard candy". She tells the tale of Emma with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not hers, exactly."

Disappointment and Disjunction

I was bound to become frustrated when I expected this different style could persist to the end. The author states here that she resents the enjoyment those who appreciate polished prose have derived from I Love Dick; she's devoted to fragmentation, to the unpolished style she has in common with her idol Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her previous novels reasserts itself in the central part. The protagonist is attempting to do up multiple decrepit residences in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while traveling between Minnesota and LA, unsuccessful in assisting Paul curb his addiction. She feels helpless as Paul cycles through underfunded jobs as an substance abuse counselor in a society propelled by the rage and anxiety that powers an electoral success. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt's social media ostracism on Twitter, her professional designation altered from "writer" to "landlord" on a reference site. Kraus still seems to invest excessive emotion about this. On one occasion she remarks that she's looking into the killing so that before departing the state, "she might be able to learn something about an America that her Twitter detractors would not understand, would not even perceive".

The Homicide Account

Then we reach to the actual killing – and the eponymous day experienced by the deceased with the killer and his associates. Kraus has excellent raw material, and knows hour by hour what happened when Brandon came to see Brittney after connecting via an application where she sold sex pictures. He anticipated intimacy but seems amiably to have occupied the day with her companions, loitering fixing his automobile and funding treats and narcotics, before being shot by her romantic interest Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has often been institutionalized for violent rage.

Preoccupation and Open Ends

Catt gets obsessed by the narrative, and I found myself captivated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards ethical reporting and daring boundary-pushing tussle in this section. However, I would have preferred her to go further into her individual preoccupations here. The most interesting character is the character Brittney, who becomes vivid partly through the protagonist's connection to her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual going off the rails in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus notes that Catt speaks to Brittney in detention, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The whole section feels curiously unresolved, to the extent that her narrative ends almost mid-par