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The Four Spent the Day Together features individuals pursuing clean slates, attempting to leave behind drugs or harmful partnerships, only to see hope turn into conflict. Chris Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "fresh start", making it intentionally weary through recurring use. Examples include "He could make a fresh start" and "They chose to begin anew" appear throughout the text. Meanwhile, Kraus herself appears to be undertaking her individual reinvention, because this seems a new kind of book – fact-based, truly literary. But then it proves to be packed with the same dilemmas and approaches as past novels.

From Accidental Writer to Cult Classic

Kraus started out as an visual artist who entered the literary world almost accidentally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, which was composed of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, converting intimate women's literature from abjection into rebellion. She continued writing, but the three subsequent compelling and abrasive novels missed the shock and immediacy that the letter form infused into the tone of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her identity as a maverick maker who had turned into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was considerable focus on housing investments. It makes sense that she currently desires to explore fresh narrative sources, turning outward to external narratives, at a time when she claims that current political era makes confessional writing redundant.

Several Eras, Collective Unavoidable Background

The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, encompassing multiple eras – none able to break free from their histories. There is the story of a couple named Emma and Jasper, representations of her own mother and father, relocating from the New York borough to the Connecticut countryside. There is the narrative of the author, in the character of protagonist Catt Greene, reckoning with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her addict husband Paul. Finally the story of the murder of one troubled youth by another in a town largely deserted by liberal ideals only a brief drive from Catt's rural residence in a remote part of Minnesota.

For this reader drawn to polished prose of the type the author herself tends to eschew, I was captivated by the narrative style of the first section.

As a reader who appreciates crafted language of the style that the author usually avoids, I was captivated by the literary tone of the opening segment. It exhibits a novel degree of detail that accommodates minutiae, like the pail 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 declares; "a great plaything", he replies, "the ambiguous meanings of language rolling around in their mouths like hard candy". She tells the tale of Emma with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not precisely her dream."

Letdown and Fragmentation

I was destined to be disappointed when I wished this new voice could last out the book. Kraus notes here that she is annoyed by the pleasure those who appreciate polished prose have derived from I Love Dick; she's devoted to fragmentation, to the unpolished style she shares with her hero Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her previous novels reasserts itself in the second segment. The protagonist is working on refurbishing 36 run-down apartments in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while traveling between two different states, unsuccessful in assisting Paul control his drinking. She is overwhelmed as her spouse moves between poorly supported positions as an substance abuse counselor in a world driven by the rage and anxiety that drives a political win. A significant portion discusses about Catt being cancelled on a platform, her professional designation altered from "writer" to "landlord" on a reference site. The author still appears to invest excessive emotion about this. On one occasion she states that she's investigating the murder so that before exiting the region, "she might be able to learn something about an America that her Twitter detractors would fail to comprehend, would not even see".

The Homicide Account

So then we come to the actual killing – and the referenced day passed by the murdered individual with the killer and his associates. Kraus utilizes great source material, and knows hour by hour what happened when Brandon came to visit 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 in the company of her associates, mooching around fixing his automobile and paying for snacks and drugs, before being murdered by her romantic interest Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has repeatedly received inpatient care for fits of anger.

Preoccupation and Open Ends

The protagonist becomes fixated by the narrative, and I was intrigued by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards responsible documentation and reckless transgression wrestle in this part. Yet I wished her to delve deeper into her own obsessions here. The standout figure is Brittney, who gains dimension partly through Catt seeing herself in her – another bright, bullied girl spiraling out of control in a difficult, overlooked locality. The author informs us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in jail, but she fails to enact these dialogues. This entire part feels oddly unfinished, to the extent that her narrative ends almost mid-par