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The Four Spent the Day Together features individuals seeking fresh starts, trying to break free from addictions or harmful partnerships, only to see hope turn into violence. Chris Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "new beginning", transforming it into intentionally weary through constant reiteration. Sentences like "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They opted for a clean break" recur in the narrative. Meanwhile, Kraus herself is embarking on her own fresh start, since this presents as a different type of work – observational, genuinely novelistic. But then it proves to be filled with the familiar conflicts and styles as earlier books.

From Unplanned Author to Cult Classic

Chris Kraus started out as an artist who entered the literary world almost accidentally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, structured as epistles to an unresponsive love interest, elevating personal female narrative from abjection into assassination. She continued writing, but the following three fascinating and rebarbative novels missed the impact and rawness that the letter form brought to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her role as a renegade artist who had evolved into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was considerable focus on property transactions. It is logical that she currently desires to try out new kinds of material, turning outward to other people's stories, at a time when she asserts that contemporary political climate renders personal narrative unnecessary.

Multiple Generations, One Unescapable Past

The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, covering multiple eras – all unable to escape their histories. We encounter the narrative about Emma and Jasper, versions of her own mother and father, moving from the Bronx to the Connecticut countryside. Then there is the story of Kraus herself, in the persona of Catt Greene, grappling with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction Paul. Finally the narrative of a homicide of one directionless individual by another in a locality mostly forsaken by progressive politics only a short distance from Catt's cottage in a remote part of Minnesota.

From my perspective as a reader attracted to refined literature of the type Kraus herself often avoids, I was captivated by the literary tone of the first section.

Being a reader who favors precise prose of the variety that Kraus usually avoids, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the opening segment. It exhibits a fresh level of observation that accommodates minutiae, like the pail that the protagonist as a child dislodges from ice at the beginning of the narrative, aided by her beloved father. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she exclaims; "a great plaything", he replies, "the elliptical meanings of words rolling around in their mouths like hard candy". Kraus writes Emma's story with interest and closeness. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not precisely her dream."

Letdown and Fragmentation

I was destined to be disappointed when I hoped this new voice could continue through the novel. The author states here that she resents the satisfaction readers like me have gotten from I Love Dick; she's devoted to fragmentation, to the messy artistic approach she echoes from her hero writer Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her previous novels comes back in the middle section. The protagonist is working on refurbishing three dozen dilapidated units in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while traveling between the Midwest and the West Coast, failing to help Paul curb his addiction. She feels helpless as Paul cycles through poorly supported positions as an recovery specialist in a world fueled by the anger and fear that powers Trump's victory. A significant portion discusses about Catt's social media ostracism on social media, her professional designation altered from "novelist" to "landlord" on the online encyclopedia. She still gives the impression to care a little too much about this. On one occasion she remarks that she's researching the homicide so that before exiting the region, "she could potentially understand something about an the nation that her Twitter detractors would be unable to grasp, would overlook entirely".

The Homicide Account

So then we come to the actual killing – and the titular day passed by the deceased with the killer and his friends. The author possesses excellent raw material, and knows hour by hour what occurred as a man named Brandon came to visit Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she sold sex pictures. He was hoping for sex but seems affably to have spent the day alongside her friends, loitering having his vehicle repaired and paying for snacks and drugs, before being shot by her romantic interest Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has repeatedly received inpatient care for aggressive outbursts.

Preoccupation and Open Ends

The protagonist becomes fixated by the account, and I was intrigued by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards accurate chronicling and reckless transgression clash in this segment. Yet I wished her to go further into her own obsessions here. The most interesting character is Brittney, who becomes vivid in part due to Catt's identification with her – another bright, bullied girl spiraling out of control in a difficult, overlooked locality. The author informs us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in jail, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. The complete segment feels curiously unresolved, to the point that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par