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The new book features characters seeking new beginnings, struggling to escape drugs or harmful partnerships, only to witness hope devolve into conflict. The author frequently uses the phrase "new beginning", making it deliberately jaded through recurring use. Sentences like "He could make a fresh start" and "They decided to make a fresh start" are scattered across the text. At the same time, the author herself appears to be undertaking her own fresh start, because this appears a novel form of writing – fact-based, genuinely novelistic. However it reveals itself to be filled with the familiar conflicts and styles as past novels.

From Unplanned Author to Iconic Work

Chris Kraus was originally an artist who transitioned to writing unintentionally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, made up of missives to a distant beloved, transforming intimate women's literature from abjection into defiance. She kept producing books, but the next trio of compelling and abrasive novels missed the power and directness that the letter form infused into the narrative voice 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 housing investments. It follows that she currently desires to experiment with fresh narrative sources, turning outward to the experiences of others, at a time when she claims that Trumpian politics turns intimate literature obsolete.

Multiple Generations, Shared Inescapable History

The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, encompassing multiple eras – none able to break free from their histories. The book includes the narrative about characters Emma and Jasper, based on Kraus's parents, moving from the urban environment to a pastoral setting. Additionally the story of Kraus herself, in the persona of a figure named Catt Greene, confronting the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her partner struggling with addiction a man named Paul. Finally the story of the murder of one troubled youth by another in a locality long abandoned by progressive politics only 80 miles from the protagonist's home in rural Minnesota.

For this reader fond of polished prose of the type Kraus herself often avoids, I was enchanted by the narrative style of the opening part.

As a reader who appreciates precise prose of the style that Kraus herself often disregards, I was captivated by the literary tone of the first section. It possesses a fresh level of observation that allows space for trivial aspects, like the bucket that the young Catt dislodges from ice at the beginning of the narrative, aided by her cherished parent. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she exclaims; "a lovely toy", he replies, "the elliptical meanings of words rolling around in their mouths like hard candy". Kraus writes the tale of Emma with interest and closeness. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not precisely her dream."

Frustration and Disruption

I was bound to become frustrated when I wished this fresh tone could last out the book. The author states here that she resents the enjoyment readers like me have gotten from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disruption, to the unpolished style she has in common with her idol author Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her previous novels reasserts itself in the second segment. Catt is trying to renovate three dozen dilapidated units in the city's most challenging districts while moving between two different states, failing to help her husband manage his alcohol use. She is overwhelmed as Paul moves between underfunded jobs as an substance abuse counselor in a world propelled by the hostility and dread that drives Trump's victory. A significant portion discusses about Catt's social media ostracism on a platform, her occupation changed from "author" to "landlord" on a reference site. Kraus still seems to be overly concerned about this. In a moment she says that she's researching the homicide so that before departing the state, "she might be able to learn something about an the nation that her Twitter detractors would be unable to grasp, would overlook entirely".

The Killing Story

Then we reach to the actual killing – and the titular day spent by the deceased with the killer and his companions. Kraus utilizes excellent raw material, and details moment by moment what transpired when Brandon came to see Brittney after meeting her on an app where she sold sex pictures. He was hoping for sex but appears congenially to have passed the day alongside her friends, mooching around fixing his automobile and covering the cost of food and substances, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's boyfriend a man named Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has frequently been hospitalised for fits of anger.

Fascination and Incompletion

Catt gets obsessed by the account, and I was fascinated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards accurate chronicling and audacious rule-breaking tussle in this section. Yet I wished her to go further into her own obsessions here. The compelling persona is Brittney, who comes alive partly through the protagonist's connection to her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman spiraling out of control in a struggling, neglected community. The author informs us that Catt converses with Brittney in detention, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The complete segment feels strangely incomplete, to the extent that her narrative ends almost mid-par