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The Four Spent the Day Together centers on individuals pursuing clean slates, trying to break free from drugs or harmful partnerships, only to see hope turn into aggression. Chris Kraus frequently uses the phrase "new beginning", transforming it into intentionally weary through constant reiteration. Phrases such as "He could make a fresh start" and "They decided to make a fresh start" appear throughout the narrative. And yet, the author herself is embarking on her individual reinvention, since this presents as a different type of work – documentarian, genuinely novelistic. However it turns out to be laden with the same dilemmas and styles as her previous works.

From Chance Novelist to Iconic Work

Kraus began as an visual artist who transitioned to writing unintentionally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, structured as missives to a distant beloved, converting confessional female writing from self-debasement into assassination. She continued writing, but the next trio of engaging and challenging novels lacked the impact and rawness that the epistolary style brought to the tone of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her identity as a renegade artist who had evolved into a major property owner, so there was much discussion on real estate deals. It follows that she currently desires to explore fresh narrative sources, turning outward to external narratives, at a time when she states that contemporary political climate makes confessional writing redundant.

Several Eras, Collective Unavoidable Background

The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, covering three generations – all unable to escape their histories. There is the story of characters Emma and Jasper, based on her own mother and father, moving from the New York borough to a pastoral setting. There is the account of Kraus, in the persona of Catt Greene, reckoning with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse a man named Paul. The third thread involves the narrative of a homicide of one troubled youth by another in a community mostly forsaken by liberal ideals only a short distance from Catt's rural residence in the Minnesota countryside.

As a reader fond of polished prose of the sort Kraus typically rejects, I was enchanted by the literary tone of the initial segment.

As a reader who favors precise prose of the variety that Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was seduced by the literary tone of the opening segment. It possesses a fresh level of observation that accommodates small details, like the pail that the young Catt frees from the ice at the start of the story, aided by her adored dad. "Look, an ice toy!" she declares; "a nice toy", he answers, "the nuanced interpretations of terms tumbling in their mouths like piece candy". She tells Emma's story with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not hers, exactly."

Frustration and Disruption

I was fated to feel let down when I wished this different style could last out the book. Kraus says here that she resents the enjoyment readers like me have gotten from I Love Dick; she's devoted to fragmentation, to the untidy aesthetics she has in common with her hero author Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her earlier works comes back in the central part. Catt Greene is attempting to do up three dozen dilapidated units in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while shuttling between Minnesota and LA, failing to help Paul curb his addiction. She is overwhelmed as Paul cycles through poorly supported positions as an addiction therapist in a society fueled by the anger and fear that underpins Trump's victory. A significant portion discusses about the protagonist facing cancellation on social media, her professional designation altered from "writer" to "landlord" on Wikipedia. She still gives the impression to be overly concerned about this. In a moment she says that she's looking into the killing so that before departing the state, "she might be able to learn something about an America that her Twitter detractors would be unable to grasp, would overlook entirely".

The Homicide Account

So then we come to the homicide in question – and the referenced day experienced by the murdered individual with the killer and his friends. Kraus utilizes compelling foundational content, and reconstructs step by step what occurred as a man named Brandon came to meet Brittney after connecting via an application 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 covering the cost of food and substances, before being killed by gunfire by her romantic interest a man named Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has frequently been hospitalised for violent rage.

Preoccupation and Open Ends

Catt develops an obsession by the story, and I was fascinated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards accurate chronicling and daring boundary-pushing wrestle in this part. Yet I wished her to go further into her own obsessions here. The compelling persona is Brittney, who becomes vivid in part due to Catt's identification with her – another bright, bullied girl going off the rails in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus tells us that Catt speaks to Brittney in prison, but she fails to enact these dialogues. This entire part feels curiously unresolved, to the extent that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par