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The Four Spent the Day Together features protagonists pursuing new beginnings, trying to break free from drugs or abusive marriages, only to witness hope devolve into aggression. Chris Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "new beginning", making it intentionally weary through constant reiteration. Sentences like "He aimed to start over" and "They opted for a clean break" appear throughout the story. Meanwhile, Kraus herself appears to be undertaking her individual reinvention, as this seems a novel form of writing – fact-based, genuinely novelistic. However it reveals itself to be packed with the familiar conflicts and styles as earlier books.

From Unplanned Author to Cult Classic

The writer started out as an creative who transitioned to writing somewhat by chance with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, structured as missives to a distant beloved, transforming personal female narrative from abjection into assassination. She kept producing books, but the three subsequent fascinating and rebarbative novels did not possess the impact and rawness that the epistolary style infused into the voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her identity as a maverick maker who had become a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was considerable focus on real estate deals. It is logical that she presently aims to explore new kinds of material, looking outwards to the experiences of others, at a time when she states that current political era turns intimate literature unnecessary.

Several Eras, Collective Unavoidable Background

The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, encompassing multiple eras – each trapped by their backgrounds. The book includes the story of Emma and Jasper, representations of the author's parents, moving from the urban environment to a pastoral setting. There is the narrative of the author, in the guise of Catt Greene, grappling with the belated success of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse her husband Paul. And there is the story of the murder of one directionless individual by another in a community long abandoned by liberal ideals only a short distance from Catt's rural residence in a remote part of Minnesota.

As a reader drawn to honed writing of the type Kraus often avoids, I was seduced by the literary tone of the first section.

As a reader who appreciates precise prose of the variety that Kraus herself usually avoids, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the opening segment. It possesses a new quality of attentiveness that accommodates minutiae, like the pail that the young Catt frees from the ice at the beginning of the narrative, helped by her beloved father. "I found an ice toy!" she declares; "a great plaything", he responds, "the ambiguous meanings of language rolling around in their mouths like hard candy". The author narrates Emma's narrative with inquiry and familiarity. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not entirely her own."

Frustration and Disruption

I was fated to feel let down when I hoped this fresh tone could continue through the novel. The author states here that she resents the pleasure readers like me have derived from I Love Dick; she's committed to fragmentation, to the unpolished style she echoes from her hero author Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her earlier works returns in the central part. Catt Greene is trying to renovate multiple decrepit residences in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while moving between two different states, unable to aid Paul control his drinking. She is overwhelmed as Paul transitions between poorly supported positions as an addiction therapist in a society propelled by the rage and anxiety that powers Trump's victory. There are several pages about Catt's social media ostracism on Twitter, her occupation changed from "author" to "real estate holder" on the online encyclopedia. She still gives the impression to care a little too much about this. In a moment she remarks that she's looking into the killing so that before exiting the region, "she might be able to learn something about an the United States that her online critics would be unable to grasp, would not even perceive".

The Murder Narrative

Thus we arrive to the homicide in question – and the referenced day experienced by the victim with the perpetrator and his companions. Kraus utilizes excellent raw material, and knows hour by hour what happened when a man named Brandon came to visit Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she marketed explicit images. He was hoping for sex but appears congenially to have passed the day with her companions, wandering about having his vehicle repaired and funding treats and narcotics, before being murdered by her romantic interest Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has frequently been hospitalised for fits of anger.

Obsession and Unfinished Business

Catt gets obsessed by the narrative, and I found myself captivated by the way that her twin drives towards accurate chronicling and audacious rule-breaking clash in this segment. However, I would have preferred her to go further into her individual preoccupations here. The most interesting character is Brittney herself, who gains dimension partially because of Catt seeing herself in her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual derailing in a troubled, forgotten town. The author informs us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in detention, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The complete segment feels oddly unfinished, to the extent that her narrative ends almost mid-par