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The Four Spent the Day Together is populated with characters pursuing new beginnings, trying to break free from addictions or toxic relationships, only to witness hope devolve into aggression. Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "new beginning", transforming it into willfully cynical through constant reiteration. Phrases such as "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They chose to begin anew" recur in the story. Meanwhile, Kraus herself is embarking on her own fresh start, because this seems a novel form of writing – fact-based, truly literary. Yet it turns out to be filled with the recurring issues and aesthetics as earlier books.

From Accidental Writer to Iconic Work

Chris Kraus was originally an artist who transitioned to writing somewhat by chance with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, structured as letters to an unreceptive lover, transforming confessional female writing from self-debasement into assassination. She continued writing, but the following three fascinating and rebarbative novels lacked the shock and immediacy that the letter form imparted to the tone of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her role as a nonconformist creator who had turned into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was considerable focus on housing investments. It is logical that she presently aims to explore different types of content, directing her gaze to the experiences of others, at a period in which she claims that Trumpian politics makes confessional writing unnecessary.

Three Generations, Shared Inescapable History

The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, encompassing three generations – each trapped by their backgrounds. The book includes the narrative about characters Emma and Jasper, versions of Kraus's parents, moving from the New York borough to rural Connecticut. Then there is the story of Kraus herself, in the character of protagonist Catt Greene, grappling with the belated success of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her addict husband a man named Paul. Finally the narrative of a homicide of one lost young man by another in a town largely deserted by progressive politics only 80 miles from Catt's rural residence in a remote part of Minnesota.

As a reader drawn to polished prose of the kind the author herself tends to eschew, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the initial segment.

Being a reader drawn to crafted language of the style that Kraus tends to eschew, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the first section. It possesses a fresh level of observation that allows space for small details, like the container that the young Catt pries out of frozen water at the beginning of the narrative, helped by her adored dad. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she says; "a lovely toy", he responds, "the nuanced interpretations of terms tumbling in their mouths like piece candy". She tells Emma's narrative with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not entirely her own."

Letdown and Fragmentation

I was destined to be disappointed when I expected this new voice could last out the book. 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 messy artistic approach she has in common with her idol Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her earlier works reasserts itself in the second segment. The protagonist is working on refurbishing multiple decrepit residences in the city's most challenging districts while shuttling between two different states, failing to help Paul manage his alcohol use. She is overwhelmed as her spouse cycles through low-resource employment as an addiction therapist in a society driven by the rage and anxiety that drives a political win. There are several pages about Catt's social media ostracism on Twitter, her professional designation altered from "writer" to "property owner" on Wikipedia. She still gives the impression to be overly concerned about this. At one point she states that she's looking into the killing so that before departing the state, "she could potentially understand something about an the nation that her Twitter detractors would fail to comprehend, would not even perceive".

The Killing Story

Then we reach to the murder itself – and the titular day passed by the victim with the killer and his companions. Kraus utilizes compelling foundational content, and details moment by moment what transpired when Brandon came to visit Brittney after meeting her on an app where she sold sex pictures. He anticipated intimacy but seems amiably to have occupied the day alongside her friends, wandering about getting his car mended and funding treats and narcotics, before being murdered by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has frequently been hospitalised for aggressive outbursts.

Fascination and Incompletion

The protagonist becomes fixated by the story, and I was intrigued by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards accurate chronicling and reckless transgression tussle in this section. Yet I wished her to delve deeper into her personal fixations here. The compelling persona is Brittney herself, who gains dimension in part due to Catt seeing herself in her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman derailing in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus notes that Catt speaks to Brittney in detention, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The whole section feels curiously unresolved, to the extent that her narrative ends almost mid-par