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The Four Spent the Day Together features characters chasing after new beginnings, struggling to escape addictions or abusive marriages, only to see hope turn into conflict. Chris Kraus often employs the phrase "new beginning", making it willfully cynical through its repetitions. Sentences like "He could make a fresh start" and "They opted for a clean break" are scattered across the story. At the same time, Kraus herself appears to be undertaking her personal new beginning, as this seems a novel form of writing – documentarian, genuinely novelistic. Yet it reveals itself to be filled with the same dilemmas and approaches as earlier books.

From Accidental Writer to Renowned Book

Kraus began as an artist who became a writer somewhat by chance with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, which was composed of missives to a distant beloved, transforming confessional female writing from self-debasement into rebellion. She kept producing books, but the following three fascinating and rebarbative novels lacked the power and directness that the epistolary style infused into the narrative voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her position as a nonconformist creator who had turned into a major property owner, so there was significant attention on real estate deals. It follows that she currently desires to explore different types of content, looking outwards to other people's stories, at a period in which she states that contemporary political climate makes confessional writing unnecessary.

Several Eras, Collective Unavoidable Background

The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, spanning several time periods – each trapped by their backgrounds. The book includes the tale of characters Emma and Jasper, representations of Kraus's parents, transitioning from the Bronx to rural Connecticut. There is the account of Kraus, in the guise of protagonist Catt Greene, grappling with the belated success of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction Paul. And there is the account of a killing of one lost young man by another in a locality mostly forsaken by progressive politics only 80 miles from the protagonist's home in rural Minnesota.

From my perspective as a reader drawn to refined literature of the type the author herself often avoids, I was enchanted by the narrative style of the first section.

As a reader who favors precise prose of the style that the author tends to eschew, I was won over by the literary tone of the first section. It exhibits a novel degree of detail that allows space for small details, like the container that the youthful Catt pries out of frozen water at the beginning of the narrative, assisted by her adored dad. "I found an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a great plaything", he answers, "the ambiguous meanings of language circulating in their speech like piece candy". Kraus writes Emma's story with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not entirely her own."

Letdown and Fragmentation

I was fated to feel let down when I wished this new voice could persist to the end. Kraus says here that she is annoyed by the satisfaction readers like me have taken from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disruption, to the untidy aesthetics she echoes from her inspiration Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her earlier works comes back in the second segment. Catt Greene is attempting to do up three dozen dilapidated units in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while traveling between the Midwest and the West Coast, failing to help Paul curb his addiction. She experiences powerlessness as her spouse transitions between poorly supported positions as an recovery specialist in a world driven by the hostility and dread that powers Trump's victory. There are several pages about the protagonist facing cancellation on social media, her professional designation altered from "writer" to "real estate holder" on the online encyclopedia. Kraus still seems to care a little too much about this. On one occasion she remarks that she's investigating the murder so that before exiting the region, "she could potentially understand something about an the United States that her social media opponents would be unable to grasp, would overlook entirely".

The Killing Story

Then we reach to the murder itself – and the eponymous day spent by the deceased with the perpetrator and his friends. Kraus has compelling foundational content, and knows hour by hour what transpired when Brandon came to meet Brittney after connecting via an application where she sold sex pictures. He anticipated intimacy but appears congenially to have passed the day with her companions, mooching around getting his car mended and funding treats and narcotics, before being shot by Brittney's partner a man named Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has frequently been hospitalised for fits of anger.

Obsession and Unfinished Business

Catt develops an obsession by the account, and I found myself captivated by the way that her twin drives towards accurate chronicling and reckless transgression wrestle in this part. However, I would have preferred her to explore more thoroughly her own obsessions here. The compelling persona is Brittney, who comes alive in part due to Catt's identification with her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual spiraling out of control in a difficult, overlooked locality. The author informs us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in detention, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The complete segment feels oddly unfinished, to the extent that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par