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The Four Spent the Day Together is populated with individuals pursuing fresh starts, attempting to leave behind substance abuse or toxic relationships, only to find hope curdling into violence. The author often employs the phrase "fresh start", transforming it into willfully cynical through recurring use. Sentences like "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They chose to begin anew" are scattered across the story. And yet, she is embarking on her own fresh start, because this seems a different type of work – fact-based, truly literary. Yet it proves to be filled with the same dilemmas and aesthetics as her previous works.

From Unplanned Author to Cult Classic

Chris Kraus began as an artist who transitioned to writing somewhat by chance with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, made up of letters to an unreceptive lover, transforming intimate women's literature from self-debasement into rebellion. She persisted as a writer, but the following three compelling and abrasive novels missed the shock and immediacy that the letter form imparted to the tone of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her position as a nonconformist creator who had turned into a major property owner, so there was considerable focus on property transactions. It follows that she presently aims to explore new kinds of material, turning outward to external narratives, at a period in which she states that current political era makes confessional writing obsolete.

Three Generations, Shared Inescapable History

The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, spanning three generations – each trapped by their pasts. There is the narrative about characters Emma and Jasper, versions of Kraus's parents, transitioning from the urban environment to a pastoral setting. Then there is the account of Kraus, in the persona of protagonist Catt Greene, reckoning with the belated success of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction her husband Paul. The third thread involves the story of the murder of one troubled youth by another in a community mostly forsaken by forward-thinking policies only 80 miles from Catt's rural residence in rural Minnesota.

As a reader fond of polished prose of the sort Kraus herself typically rejects, I was enchanted by the literary tone of the opening part.

As a reader who appreciates precise prose of the kind that Kraus herself often disregards, I was captivated by the literary tone of the initial part. It exhibits a new quality of attentiveness that allows space for minutiae, like the container that the protagonist as a child pries out of frozen water at the opening of the book, helped by her adored dad. "Look, an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a lovely toy", he answers, "the nuanced interpretations of terms circulating in their speech like piece candy". The author narrates the tale of Emma with interest and closeness. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not entirely her own."

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 satisfaction those who appreciate polished prose have gotten from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disruption, to the untidy aesthetics she echoes from her idol Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her past books returns in the second segment. Catt Greene is working on refurbishing 36 run-down apartments in the city's most challenging districts while traveling between Minnesota and LA, unsuccessful in assisting Paul control his drinking. She is overwhelmed as Paul transitions between low-resource employment as an recovery specialist in a environment driven by the anger and fear that drives Trump's victory. A significant portion discusses about Catt being cancelled on social media, her professional designation altered from "writer" to "real estate holder" on Wikipedia. The author still appears 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 online critics would fail to comprehend, would not even see".

The Killing Story

Then we reach to the homicide in question – and the titular day passed by the victim with the murderer and his companions. Kraus utilizes great source material, and details moment by moment what occurred as Brandon came to see Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she marketed explicit images. He anticipated intimacy but seems amiably to have occupied the day alongside her friends, mooching around having his vehicle repaired and paying for snacks and drugs, before being shot by her romantic interest Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has repeatedly received inpatient care for fits of anger.

Fascination and Incompletion

The protagonist becomes fixated by the account, and I found myself captivated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards ethical reporting and reckless transgression clash in this segment. But I'd have liked her to go further into her own obsessions here. The standout figure is the character Brittney, who gains dimension partly through Catt seeing herself in her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual derailing in a difficult, overlooked locality. The author informs us that Catt speaks to Brittney in jail, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The complete segment feels strangely incomplete, to the extent that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par