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The Four Spent the Day Together features characters seeking clean slates, struggling to escape substance abuse or harmful partnerships, only to witness hope devolve into violence. Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "new beginning", transforming it into deliberately jaded through its repetitions. Phrases such as "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They chose to begin anew" recur in the narrative. Meanwhile, Kraus herself appears to be undertaking her individual reinvention, since this presents as a new kind of book – observational, genuinely novelistic. However it proves to be laden with the familiar conflicts and approaches as past novels.

From Unplanned Author to Iconic Work

Chris Kraus started out as an visual artist who entered the literary world almost accidentally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, structured as epistles to an unresponsive love interest, elevating intimate women's literature from self-debasement into defiance. She kept producing books, but the next trio of engaging and challenging novels did not possess the power and directness that the correspondence format infused into the tone of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her role as a maverick maker who had evolved into a extensive real estate holder, so there was considerable focus on property transactions. It follows that she presently aims to try out different types of content, turning outward to external narratives, at a moment when she claims that current political era renders personal narrative unnecessary.

Multiple Generations, Shared Inescapable History

The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, spanning multiple eras – none able to break free from their backgrounds. There is the story of a couple named Emma and Jasper, representations of Kraus's parents, relocating from the New York borough to a pastoral setting. Additionally the account of Kraus, in the character of protagonist Catt Greene, grappling with the belated success of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction a man named Paul. Finally the narrative of a homicide of one troubled youth by another in a community long abandoned by liberal ideals only a short distance from Catt's rural residence in the Minnesota countryside.

For this reader drawn to polished prose of the sort Kraus tends to eschew, I was seduced by the narrative style of the first section.

Being a reader who appreciates honed writing of the kind that Kraus often disregards, I was seduced 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 protagonist as a child frees from the ice at the beginning of the narrative, aided by her beloved father. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she says; "a great plaything", he answers, "the ambiguous meanings of language circulating in their speech like sweet treats". The author narrates the tale of Emma with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not entirely her own."

Letdown and Fragmentation

I was destined to be disappointed when I wished this different style could persist to the end. Kraus says here that she is annoyed by the satisfaction readers like me have gotten from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disjunction, to the messy artistic approach she shares with her inspiration writer Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her earlier works reasserts itself in the middle section. Catt Greene is trying to renovate multiple decrepit residences in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while shuttling between Minnesota and LA, unsuccessful in assisting Paul control his drinking. She experiences powerlessness as her spouse cycles through poorly supported positions as an addiction therapist in a world fueled by the rage and anxiety that drives an electoral success. There are several pages about the protagonist facing cancellation on a platform, her listed profession modified from "writer" to "landlord" on a reference site. Kraus still seems to care a little too much about this. In a moment she remarks that she's researching the homicide so that before exiting the region, "she might be able to learn something about an America that her Twitter detractors would not understand, would not even see".

The Homicide Account

Then we reach to the murder itself – and the titular day passed by the murdered individual with the killer and his associates. The author possesses excellent raw material, and reconstructs step by step what happened when the victim Brandon came to see Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she offered adult photos. He was hoping for sex but seems amiably to have occupied the day alongside her friends, loitering getting his car mended and funding treats and narcotics, before being shot by her romantic interest 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 account, and I found myself captivated by the way that her twin drives towards ethical reporting and reckless transgression wrestle in this part. Yet I wished her to delve deeper into her individual preoccupations here. The compelling persona is the character Brittney, who gains dimension partially because of Catt seeing herself in her – another bright, bullied girl spiraling out of control in a troubled, forgotten town. The author informs us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in prison, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. This entire part feels oddly unfinished, to the degree that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par