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The new book features characters pursuing new beginnings, struggling to escape substance abuse or toxic relationships, only to find hope curdling into violence. Chris Kraus often employs the phrase "new beginning", making it willfully cynical through constant reiteration. Phrases such as "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They opted for a clean break" are scattered across the narrative. Meanwhile, Kraus herself is embarking on her own fresh start, since this seems a new kind of book – fact-based, truly literary. Yet it turns out to be packed with the familiar conflicts and aesthetics as past novels.

From Unplanned Author to Cult Classic

The writer began as an creative who transitioned to writing somewhat by chance with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, which was composed of missives to a distant beloved, elevating confessional female writing from humiliation into rebellion. She persisted as a writer, but the three subsequent compelling and abrasive novels missed the power and directness that the epistolary style brought to the tone of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her identity as a maverick maker who had turned into a major property owner, so there was considerable focus on housing investments. It follows that she currently desires to explore fresh narrative sources, turning outward to external narratives, at a time when she states that Trumpian politics makes confessional writing redundant.

Multiple Generations, Shared Inescapable History

The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, covering three generations – none able to break free from their histories. There is the tale of Emma and Jasper, versions of the author's parents, moving from the Bronx to the Connecticut countryside. There is the account of Kraus, in the character of a figure named 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 account of a killing of one troubled youth by another in a town long abandoned by liberal ideals only a brief drive from Catt's rural residence in rural Minnesota.

For this reader attracted to polished prose of the type Kraus herself often avoids, I was enchanted by the narrative style of the initial segment.

As someone who reads who appreciates precise prose of the variety that Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was won over by the literary tone of the first section. It exhibits a fresh level of observation that makes room 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 exclaims; "a great plaything", he answers, "the elliptical meanings of words rolling around in their mouths like sweet treats". Kraus writes Emma's story with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not hers, exactly."

Frustration and Disruption

I was destined to be disappointed when I wished this new voice could persist to the end. The author states here that she resents the enjoyment readers like me have derived from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disjunction, to the messy artistic approach she echoes from her inspiration Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her previous novels returns in the second segment. Catt Greene is working on refurbishing multiple decrepit residences in the city's most challenging districts while moving between the Midwest and the West Coast, unsuccessful in assisting her husband curb his addiction. She is overwhelmed as her spouse transitions between low-resource employment as an addiction therapist in a world propelled by the hostility and dread that powers a political win. A significant portion discusses about the protagonist facing cancellation on a platform, her occupation changed from "writer" to "real estate holder" on a reference site. Kraus still seems to care a little too much about this. In a moment she says that she's researching the homicide so that before exiting the region, "she may grasp something about an America that her Twitter detractors would fail to comprehend, would overlook entirely".

The Homicide Account

So then we come to the actual killing – and the eponymous day spent by the deceased with the murderer and his companions. Kraus utilizes excellent raw material, and details moment by moment what happened when Brandon came to see Brittney after connecting via an application where she marketed explicit images. He anticipated intimacy but appears congenially to have passed the day alongside her friends, mooching around getting his car mended and covering the cost of food and substances, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's partner a man named Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has repeatedly received inpatient care for violent rage.

Obsession and Unfinished Business

Catt develops an obsession by the narrative, and I was fascinated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards responsible documentation and reckless transgression clash in this segment. However, I would have preferred her to go further into her individual preoccupations here. The compelling persona is Brittney, who becomes vivid partially because of Catt's identification with her – another bright, bullied girl derailing in a difficult, overlooked locality. The author informs us that Catt speaks to Brittney in prison, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The whole section feels strangely incomplete, to the extent that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par