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The Four Spent the Day Together centers on characters seeking fresh starts, trying to break free from drugs or abusive marriages, only to witness hope devolve into conflict. The author frequently uses the phrase "new beginning", making it intentionally weary through its repetitions. Phrases such as "He could make a fresh start" and "They opted for a clean break" recur in the text. At the same time, she is embarking on her individual reinvention, as this seems a different type of work – observational, truly literary. But then it turns out to be laden with the familiar conflicts and approaches as past novels.

From Chance Novelist to Renowned Book

Chris Kraus was originally an visual artist who transitioned to writing unintentionally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, made up of missives to a distant beloved, transforming intimate women's literature from abjection into rebellion. She continued writing, but the next trio of engaging and challenging novels missed the impact and rawness that the epistolary style imparted to the tone of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her role as a maverick maker who had evolved into a major property owner, so there was much discussion on housing investments. It follows that she now wants to experiment with different types of content, directing her gaze to other people's stories, at a period in which she asserts that Trumpian politics renders personal narrative redundant.

Several Eras, Collective Unavoidable Background

The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, covering several time periods – each trapped by their pasts. The book includes the story of a couple named Emma and Jasper, versions of Kraus's parents, moving from the New York borough to the Connecticut countryside. Then there is the narrative of the author, in the persona of protagonist Catt Greene, grappling with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse Paul. And there is the narrative of a homicide of one lost young man by another in a community largely deserted by forward-thinking policies only 80 miles from Catt's rural residence in a remote part of Minnesota.

For this reader fond of polished prose of the kind Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the initial segment.

Being a reader who favors crafted language of the style that the author often disregards, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the initial part. It exhibits a new quality of attentiveness that accommodates trivial aspects, like the bucket that the youthful Catt dislodges from ice at the start of the story, aided by her adored dad. "I found an ice toy!" she declares; "a great plaything", he replies, "the elliptical meanings of words circulating in their speech like sweet treats". She tells Emma's narrative with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not precisely her dream."

Frustration and Disruption

I was fated to feel let down when I expected this new voice could continue through the novel. The author states here that she resents the satisfaction those who appreciate polished prose have gotten from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disjunction, to the unpolished style she echoes from her inspiration author Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her previous novels reasserts itself in the central part. Catt Greene is attempting to do up multiple decrepit residences in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while traveling between Minnesota and LA, unsuccessful in assisting her husband manage his alcohol use. She feels helpless as her spouse cycles through low-resource employment as an substance abuse counselor in a environment fueled by the anger and fear that drives an electoral success. A significant portion discusses about the protagonist facing cancellation on social media, her professional designation altered from "writer" to "landlord" on a reference site. The author still appears to care a little too much about this. At one point she remarks that she's looking into the killing so that before leaving Minnesota, "she may grasp something about an America that her social media opponents would be unable to grasp, would not even perceive".

The Murder Narrative

Then we reach to the murder itself – and the eponymous day passed by the murdered individual with the perpetrator and his companions. Kraus utilizes great source material, and knows hour by hour what transpired when the victim Brandon came to meet Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she sold sex pictures. He was hoping for sex but appears congenially to have passed the day alongside her friends, wandering about getting his car mended and funding treats and narcotics, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's boyfriend a man named Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has repeatedly received inpatient care for violent rage.

Fascination and Incompletion

Catt gets obsessed by the narrative, and I was fascinated by the way that her twin drives towards ethical reporting and audacious rule-breaking wrestle in this part. However, I would have preferred her to explore more thoroughly her own obsessions here. The compelling persona is the character Brittney, who comes alive in part due to Catt seeing herself in her – another bright, bullied girl going off the rails in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus notes that Catt converses with Brittney in detention, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. The complete segment feels oddly unfinished, to the point that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par