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The Four Spent the Day Together centers on protagonists seeking fresh starts, attempting to leave behind drugs or abusive marriages, only to find hope curdling into conflict. Chris Kraus frequently uses the phrase "new beginning", transforming it into deliberately jaded through constant reiteration. Examples include "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They decided to make a fresh start" appear throughout the text. Meanwhile, Kraus herself appears to be undertaking her own fresh start, since this presents as a different type of work – documentarian, truly literary. But then it reveals itself to be filled with the recurring issues and approaches as past novels.

From Accidental Writer to Cult Classic

The writer started out as an creative who became a writer somewhat by chance with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, which was composed of missives to a distant beloved, transforming intimate women's literature from self-debasement into assassination. She kept producing books, but the next trio of engaging and challenging novels lacked the power and directness that the letter form imparted to the tone of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her identity as a maverick maker who had turned into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was considerable focus on property transactions. It is logical that she currently desires to explore new kinds of material, turning outward to external narratives, at a time when she states that contemporary political climate turns intimate literature obsolete.

Multiple Generations, Collective Unavoidable Background

The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, spanning several time periods – none able to break free from their backgrounds. We encounter the story of Emma and Jasper, versions of the author's parents, moving from the urban environment to a pastoral setting. Then there is the story of Kraus herself, in the persona of Catt Greene, reckoning with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her partner struggling with addiction Paul. Finally the narrative of a homicide of one troubled youth by another in a town largely deserted by liberal ideals only a brief drive from the protagonist's home in the Minnesota countryside.

For this reader drawn to honed writing of the type the author herself often avoids, I was captivated by the literary tone of the first section.

As a reader who favors honed writing of the kind that the author tends to eschew, I was captivated by the storytelling approach of the opening segment. It exhibits a new quality of attentiveness that allows space for small details, like the pail that the protagonist as a child frees from the ice at the start of the story, aided by her beloved father. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she says; "a great plaything", he responds, "the nuanced interpretations of terms tumbling in their mouths like sweet treats". She tells Emma's story with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not precisely her dream."

Disappointment and Disjunction

I was fated to feel let down when I hoped this fresh tone could continue through the novel. Kraus notes here that she is annoyed by the satisfaction readers like me have gotten from I Love Dick; she's committed to disjunction, to the unpolished style she shares with her idol author Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her earlier works reasserts itself in the central part. Catt Greene is working on refurbishing three dozen dilapidated units in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while shuttling between the Midwest and the West Coast, failing to help her husband curb his addiction. She is overwhelmed as Paul moves between low-resource employment as an addiction therapist in a society fueled by the anger and fear that powers a political win. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt being cancelled on Twitter, her professional designation altered from "writer" to "property owner" on Wikipedia. She still gives the impression to invest excessive emotion about this. On one occasion she states that she's looking into the killing so that before exiting the region, "she could potentially understand something about an America that her online critics would fail to comprehend, would not even perceive".

The Homicide Account

So then we come to the homicide in question – and the referenced day passed by the deceased with the perpetrator and his friends. Kraus has great source material, and reconstructs step by step what transpired when a man named Brandon came to meet Brittney after meeting her on an app where she offered adult photos. He sought a sexual encounter but appears congenially to have passed the day with her companions, wandering about fixing his automobile and covering the cost of food and substances, before being killed by gunfire by her romantic interest a man named Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has frequently been hospitalised for aggressive outbursts.

Preoccupation and Open Ends

Catt develops an obsession by the account, and I was intrigued by the way that her twin drives towards responsible documentation and reckless transgression clash in this segment. However, I would have preferred her to delve deeper into her personal fixations here. The most interesting character is the character Brittney, who comes alive partly through Catt seeing herself in her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman derailing in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus notes that Catt speaks to Brittney in detention, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. The complete segment feels strangely incomplete, to the extent that her narrative ends almost mid-par