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The Four Spent the Day Together centers on individuals seeking new beginnings, trying to break free from substance abuse or toxic relationships, only to find hope curdling into conflict. Kraus frequently uses the phrase "clean slate", making it intentionally weary through constant reiteration. Sentences like "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They decided to make a fresh start" are scattered across the story. At the same time, the author herself appears to be undertaking her personal new beginning, because this appears a novel form of writing – fact-based, genuinely novelistic. Yet it reveals itself to be packed with the same dilemmas and aesthetics as past novels.

From Accidental Writer to Iconic Work

Chris Kraus started out as an creative who transitioned to writing somewhat by chance with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, which was composed of missives to a distant beloved, transforming confessional female writing from abjection into rebellion. She kept producing books, but the next trio of compelling and abrasive novels lacked the shock and immediacy that the epistolary style infused into the voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her position as a maverick maker who had evolved into a extensive real estate holder, so there was significant attention on real estate deals. It follows that she presently aims to experiment with different types of content, directing her gaze to external narratives, at a time when she asserts that contemporary political climate makes confessional writing obsolete.

Several Eras, One Unescapable Past

The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, spanning multiple eras – all unable to escape their backgrounds. There is the narrative about a couple named Emma and Jasper, based on the author's parents, relocating from the Bronx to the Connecticut countryside. Additionally the story of Kraus herself, in the persona of Catt Greene, grappling with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her addict husband Paul. And there is the narrative of a homicide of one troubled youth by another in a locality largely deserted by progressive politics only a short distance from Catt's rural residence in the Minnesota countryside.

As a reader fond of honed writing of the sort Kraus herself often avoids, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the initial segment.

As someone who reads who appreciates honed writing of the kind that Kraus often disregards, I was won over by the storytelling approach of the initial part. There is a fresh level of observation that accommodates trivial aspects, like the pail that the protagonist as a child pries out of frozen water at the opening of the book, helped by her adored dad. "Look, an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a lovely toy", he responds, "the elliptical meanings of words tumbling in their mouths like hard candy". The author narrates Emma's narrative with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not entirely her own."

Letdown and Fragmentation

I was bound to become frustrated when I hoped this different style could last out the book. Kraus says here that she is annoyed by the pleasure readers like me have derived from I Love Dick; she's committed to disruption, to the untidy aesthetics she has in common with her idol Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her past books comes back in the middle section. Catt Greene is attempting to do up 36 run-down apartments in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while traveling between Minnesota and LA, unable to aid Paul curb his addiction. She is overwhelmed as Paul transitions between underfunded jobs as an recovery specialist in a society driven 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 Wikipedia. The author still appears to invest excessive emotion about this. At one point 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 fail to comprehend, would overlook entirely".

The Homicide Account

Then we reach to the actual killing – and the referenced day passed by the victim with the perpetrator and his associates. Kraus utilizes excellent raw material, and reconstructs step by step what happened when the victim Brandon came to see Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she sold sex pictures. He anticipated intimacy but seems amiably to have occupied the day with her companions, wandering about getting his car mended and paying for snacks and drugs, before being shot by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has frequently been hospitalised for fits of anger.

Fascination and Incompletion

Catt develops an obsession by the narrative, and I was intrigued by the way that her twin drives towards responsible documentation and reckless transgression clash in this segment. Yet I wished her to explore more thoroughly her individual preoccupations here. The compelling persona is Brittney herself, who gains dimension partly through Catt's identification with her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual derailing in a struggling, neglected community. The author informs us that Catt speaks to Brittney in detention, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The whole section feels curiously unresolved, to the degree that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par