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The Four Spent the Day Together centers on protagonists pursuing fresh starts, trying to break free from substance abuse or abusive marriages, only to see hope turn into conflict. Chris Kraus frequently uses the phrase "new beginning", rendering it deliberately jaded through its repetitions. Phrases such as "He aimed to start over" and "They chose to begin anew" recur in the story. At the same time, the author herself is embarking on her individual reinvention, since this seems a new kind of book – observational, authentically narrative. However it proves to be packed with the recurring issues and aesthetics as her previous works.

From Accidental Writer to Cult Classic

Kraus started out as an visual artist who became a writer somewhat by chance with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, which was composed of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, elevating confessional female writing from abjection into rebellion. She kept producing books, but the next trio of engaging and challenging novels missed the impact and rawness that the epistolary style infused into the tone of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her position as a maverick maker who had turned into a major property owner, so there was significant attention on real estate deals. It follows that she currently desires to experiment with new kinds of material, directing her gaze to the experiences of others, at a period in which she states that Trumpian politics makes confessional writing obsolete.

Several Eras, One Unescapable Past

The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, spanning three generations – none able to break free from their histories. There is the narrative about Emma and Jasper, representations of the author's parents, relocating from the New York borough to a pastoral setting. Then there is the story of Kraus herself, in the persona of a figure named Catt Greene, grappling with the belated success of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction a man named Paul. And there is the account of a killing of one troubled youth by another in a community mostly forsaken by progressive politics only a short distance from the protagonist's home in the Minnesota countryside.

From my perspective as a reader fond of polished prose of the sort the author herself tends to eschew, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the initial segment.

As a reader who favors precise prose of the kind that Kraus herself often disregards, I was won over by the novelistic voice of the initial part. It possesses a novel degree of detail that accommodates small details, like the bucket that the youthful Catt frees from the ice at the beginning of the narrative, assisted by her cherished parent. "Look, an ice toy!" she declares; "a great plaything", he replies, "the elliptical meanings of words rolling around in their mouths like sweet treats". The author narrates Emma's narrative with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not hers, exactly."

Frustration and Disruption

I was bound to become frustrated when I expected this different style could last out the book. Kraus says here that she resents the pleasure readers like me have gotten from I Love Dick; she's committed to fragmentation, to the untidy aesthetics she shares with her idol author Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her earlier works comes back in the middle section. The protagonist is trying to renovate three dozen dilapidated units in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while traveling between two different states, unsuccessful in assisting Paul control his drinking. She experiences powerlessness as Paul transitions between underfunded jobs as an addiction therapist in a world driven by the rage and anxiety that drives a political win. There are several pages about the protagonist facing cancellation on social media, her professional designation altered from "writer" to "landlord" on a reference site. She still gives the impression to invest excessive emotion about this. On one occasion she says that she's researching the homicide so that before departing the state, "she may grasp something about an America that her online critics would not understand, would not even see".

The Murder Narrative

Thus we arrive to the murder itself – and the titular day experienced by the murdered individual with the perpetrator and his friends. The author possesses great source material, and reconstructs step by step what transpired when a man named Brandon came to see Brittney after meeting her on an app where she offered adult photos. He anticipated intimacy but seems amiably to have occupied the day alongside her friends, mooching around getting his car mended and covering the cost of food and substances, 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 was intrigued by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards responsible documentation and daring boundary-pushing clash in this segment. Yet I wished her to explore more thoroughly her individual preoccupations here. The standout figure is Brittney herself, who comes alive partly through Catt's identification with her – another bright, bullied girl derailing in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus tells us that Catt speaks to Brittney in jail, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The whole section feels strangely incomplete, to the point that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par