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The Four Spent the Day Together centers on characters chasing after new beginnings, struggling to escape addictions or harmful partnerships, only to see hope turn into violence. Chris Kraus often employs the phrase "fresh start", rendering it intentionally weary through recurring use. Phrases such as "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They chose to begin anew" are scattered across the narrative. At the same time, Kraus herself appears to be undertaking her individual reinvention, as this presents as a novel form of writing – observational, genuinely novelistic. But then it proves to be packed with the same dilemmas and styles as past novels.

From Accidental Writer to Renowned Book

Kraus started out as an artist who transitioned to writing somewhat by chance with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, made up of letters to an unreceptive lover, transforming intimate women's literature from self-debasement into assassination. She kept producing books, but the three subsequent engaging and challenging novels missed the power and directness that the epistolary style imparted to the tone of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her position as a renegade artist who had become a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was considerable focus on property transactions. It makes sense that she now wants to experiment with different types of content, directing her gaze to the experiences of others, at a moment when she states that current political era renders personal narrative obsolete.

Multiple Generations, Shared Inescapable History

The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, spanning multiple eras – each trapped by their histories. We encounter the tale of characters Emma and Jasper, representations of Kraus's parents, relocating from the Bronx to a pastoral setting. There is the narrative of the author, in the character of Catt Greene, reckoning with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her substance-dependent spouse her husband Paul. And there is the account of a killing of one troubled youth by another in a town mostly forsaken by progressive politics only 80 miles from Catt's cottage in a remote part of Minnesota.

As a reader drawn to honed writing of the sort Kraus tends to eschew, I was seduced by the narrative style of the initial segment.

As someone who reads who appreciates crafted language of the kind that Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was won over by the storytelling approach of the opening segment. It possesses a new quality of attentiveness that makes room for small details, like the bucket that the youthful Catt pries out of frozen water at the start of the story, aided by her beloved father. "Look, an ice toy!" she says; "a nice toy", he replies, "the nuanced interpretations of terms rolling around in their mouths like sweet treats". She tells the tale of Emma with interest and closeness. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not entirely her own."

Frustration and Disruption

I was bound to become frustrated when I wished this different style could continue through the novel. Kraus notes here that she dislikes the pleasure audiences such as myself have gotten from I Love Dick; she's committed to fragmentation, to the messy artistic approach she shares with her inspiration Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her previous novels comes back in the central part. Catt is attempting to do up 36 run-down apartments in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while moving between the Midwest and the West Coast, failing to help her husband manage his alcohol use. She is overwhelmed as Paul transitions between poorly supported positions as an addiction therapist in a world fueled by the anger and fear that powers Trump's victory. Multiple pages are devoted about the protagonist facing cancellation on social media, her professional designation altered from "writer" to "landlord" on a reference site. Kraus still seems to be overly concerned about this. In a moment she remarks that she's investigating the murder so that before departing the state, "she could potentially understand something about an the United States that her online critics would fail to comprehend, would not even perceive".

The Murder Narrative

Thus we arrive to the actual killing – and the titular day spent by the deceased with the killer and his associates. Kraus utilizes great source material, and knows hour by hour what transpired when the victim Brandon came to see Brittney after meeting her on an app where she sold sex pictures. He sought a sexual encounter but appears congenially to have passed the day with her companions, loitering fixing his automobile and funding treats and narcotics, before being killed by gunfire by her romantic interest a man named Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has repeatedly received inpatient care for violent rage.

Obsession and Unfinished Business

Catt gets obsessed by the story, and I was intrigued by the way that her twin drives towards ethical reporting and audacious rule-breaking clash in this segment. But I'd have liked her to go further into her own obsessions here. The standout figure is Brittney herself, who becomes vivid partly through Catt's identification with her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual spiraling out of control in a troubled, forgotten town. The author informs us that Catt converses with Brittney in prison, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The whole section feels strangely incomplete, to the extent that her narrative ends almost mid-par