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The Four Spent the Day Together is populated with individuals seeking fresh starts, trying to break free from substance abuse or toxic relationships, only to find hope curdling into conflict. The author often employs the phrase "fresh start", making it intentionally weary through constant reiteration. Examples include "He could make a fresh start" and "They opted for a clean break" recur in the narrative. Meanwhile, the author herself is embarking on her personal new beginning, as this appears a novel form of writing – observational, authentically narrative. However it reveals itself to be packed with the same dilemmas and aesthetics as her previous works.

From Chance Novelist to Renowned Book

Chris Kraus started out as an artist who became a writer somewhat by chance with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, structured as letters to an unreceptive lover, converting intimate women's literature from self-debasement into defiance. She persisted as a writer, but the next trio of engaging and challenging novels lacked the power and directness that the correspondence format imparted to the tone of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her role as a maverick maker who had become a extensive real estate holder, so there was significant attention on real estate deals. It follows that she currently desires to experiment with different types of content, directing her gaze to external narratives, at a time when she claims that Trumpian politics renders personal narrative obsolete.

Several Eras, Shared Inescapable History

The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, spanning several time periods – each trapped by their histories. The book includes the narrative about characters Emma and Jasper, representations of the author's parents, moving from the New York borough to rural Connecticut. There is the narrative of the author, in the character of protagonist Catt Greene, grappling with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse Paul. And there is the account of a killing of one directionless individual by another in a community mostly forsaken by liberal ideals only a short distance from Catt's cottage in the Minnesota countryside.

For this reader attracted to refined literature of the type Kraus typically rejects, I was enchanted by the novelistic voice of the initial segment.

Being a reader who favors precise prose of the variety that Kraus usually avoids, I was won over by the storytelling approach of the opening segment. It possesses a novel degree of detail that allows space for minutiae, like the pail that the young Catt frees from the ice at the start of the story, assisted by her beloved father. "I found an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a nice toy", he responds, "the ambiguous meanings of language circulating in their speech like sweet treats". She tells the tale of Emma with interest and closeness. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not hers, exactly."

Letdown and Fragmentation

I was fated to feel let down when I wished this fresh tone could last out the book. The author states here that she dislikes the enjoyment readers like me have taken from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to fragmentation, to the unpolished style she has in common with her idol Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her previous novels reasserts itself in the middle section. Catt Greene is working on refurbishing multiple decrepit residences in the city's most challenging districts while shuttling between the Midwest and the West Coast, unsuccessful in assisting Paul manage his alcohol use. She experiences powerlessness as her spouse cycles through poorly supported positions as an recovery specialist in a environment fueled by the anger and fear that underpins Trump's victory. There are several pages about Catt being cancelled on Twitter, her occupation changed from "writer" to "real estate holder" on a reference site. She still gives the impression to be overly concerned about this. At one point she remarks that she's investigating the murder so that before departing the state, "she could potentially understand something about an America that her Twitter detractors would fail to comprehend, would overlook entirely".

The Homicide Account

Thus we arrive to the murder itself – and the eponymous day experienced by the deceased with the murderer and his friends. Kraus has great source material, and details moment by moment what happened when the victim Brandon came to meet Brittney after connecting via an application where she sold sex pictures. He sought a sexual encounter but seems affably to have spent the day alongside her friends, loitering fixing his automobile and funding treats and narcotics, before being shot by Brittney's boyfriend a man named Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has repeatedly received inpatient care for violent rage.

Preoccupation and Open Ends

The protagonist becomes fixated by the account, and I found myself captivated by the way that her twin drives towards accurate chronicling and reckless transgression clash in this segment. But I'd have liked her to delve deeper into her own obsessions here. The most interesting character is Brittney, who becomes vivid partially because of Catt seeing herself in her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual derailing in a difficult, overlooked locality. The author informs us that Catt converses with Brittney in jail, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The complete segment feels curiously unresolved, to the point that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par