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The Four Spent the Day Together centers on protagonists pursuing new beginnings, struggling to escape drugs or toxic relationships, only to find hope curdling into aggression. Chris Kraus often employs the phrase "new beginning", making it deliberately jaded through constant reiteration. Examples include "He could make a fresh start" and "They opted for a clean break" recur in the narrative. At the same time, the author herself is embarking on her personal new beginning, since this seems a new kind of book – documentarian, authentically narrative. But then it turns out to be laden with the same dilemmas and approaches as her previous works.

From Chance Novelist to Renowned Book

Chris Kraus began as an visual artist who entered the literary world unintentionally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, structured as epistles to an unresponsive love interest, transforming intimate women's literature from self-debasement into rebellion. She persisted as a writer, but the following three fascinating and rebarbative novels did not possess the impact and rawness that the epistolary style imparted to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her role as a nonconformist creator who had become a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was much discussion on property transactions. It follows that she currently desires to try out different types of content, directing her gaze to other people's stories, at a period in which she states that current political era turns intimate literature redundant.

Several Eras, Shared Inescapable History

The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, encompassing several time periods – none able to break free from their backgrounds. The book includes the story of a couple named Emma and Jasper, based on Kraus's parents, transitioning from the New York borough to a pastoral setting. There is the narrative of the author, in the character of a figure named Catt Greene, confronting the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction Paul. The third thread involves the narrative of a homicide of one lost young man by another in a community largely deserted by liberal ideals only 80 miles from Catt's rural residence in a remote part of Minnesota.

From my perspective as a reader fond of honed writing of the sort Kraus typically rejects, I was seduced by the narrative style of the first section.

As someone who reads who favors honed writing of the variety that Kraus tends to eschew, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the first section. There is a new quality of attentiveness that accommodates small details, like the container that the protagonist as a child pries out of frozen water at the start of the story, assisted by her cherished parent. "I found an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a nice toy", he answers, "the nuanced interpretations of terms rolling around in their mouths like piece candy". The author narrates Emma's story with interest and closeness. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not hers, exactly."

Frustration and Disruption

I was destined to be disappointed when I expected this fresh tone could last out the book. The author states here that she resents the enjoyment audiences such as myself have derived from I Love Dick; she's committed to fragmentation, to the unpolished style she has in common with her idol Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her earlier works comes back in the central part. Catt is working on refurbishing three dozen dilapidated units in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while shuttling between Minnesota and LA, failing to help Paul curb his addiction. She is overwhelmed as Paul transitions between poorly supported positions as an substance abuse counselor in a environment driven by the anger and fear that underpins Trump's victory. A significant portion discusses about the protagonist facing cancellation on social media, her professional designation altered from "novelist" to "landlord" on the online encyclopedia. Kraus still seems to be overly concerned about this. At one point she remarks that she's investigating the murder so that before departing the state, "she might be able to learn something about an the United States that her Twitter detractors would fail to comprehend, would overlook entirely".

The Killing Story

So then we come to the murder itself – and the titular day experienced by the deceased with the perpetrator and his friends. Kraus utilizes great source material, and reconstructs step by step what transpired when the victim Brandon came to visit Brittney after meeting her on an app where she sold sex pictures. He sought a sexual encounter but appears congenially to have passed the day with her companions, loitering having his vehicle repaired and paying for snacks and drugs, before being shot by her romantic interest a man named Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has frequently been hospitalised for fits of anger.

Preoccupation and Open Ends

Catt gets obsessed by the story, and I found myself captivated by the way that her twin drives towards accurate chronicling and reckless transgression wrestle in this part. But I'd have liked her to delve deeper into her personal fixations here. The compelling persona is Brittney herself, who becomes vivid partially because of Catt's identification with her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual derailing in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus tells us that Catt converses with Brittney in jail, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. The whole section feels strangely incomplete, to the point that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par