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The Four Spent the Day Together is populated with characters seeking clean slates, attempting to leave behind addictions or harmful partnerships, only to find hope curdling into conflict. The author repeatedly invokes the phrase "clean slate", rendering it willfully cynical through recurring use. Sentences like "He aimed to start over" and "They decided to make a fresh start" are scattered across the story. At the same time, the author herself seems to be making her own fresh start, because this appears a new kind of book – observational, genuinely novelistic. Yet it reveals itself to be laden with the familiar conflicts and aesthetics as her previous works.

From Chance Novelist to Renowned Book

Chris Kraus started out as an artist who transitioned to writing unintentionally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, made up of letters to an unreceptive lover, elevating confessional female writing from self-debasement into rebellion. She kept producing books, but the following three fascinating and rebarbative novels did not possess the power and directness that the correspondence format infused into the narrative voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her identity as a maverick maker who had become a major property owner, so there was considerable focus on property transactions. It is logical that she now wants to try out fresh narrative sources, directing her gaze to external narratives, at a period in which she claims that contemporary political climate makes confessional writing unnecessary.

Multiple Generations, Collective Unavoidable Background

The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, covering several time periods – all unable to escape their histories. We encounter the story of a couple named Emma and Jasper, versions of the author's parents, relocating from the urban environment to rural Connecticut. Additionally the account of Kraus, in the character of a figure named Catt Greene, confronting the belated success of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction a man named Paul. And there is the account of a killing of one directionless individual by another in a locality mostly forsaken by progressive politics only a brief drive from Catt's cottage in the Minnesota countryside.

As a reader drawn to honed writing of the type Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the initial segment.

As a reader drawn to honed writing of the style that the author often disregards, I was captivated by the literary tone of the initial part. It exhibits a novel degree of detail that makes room for trivial aspects, like the bucket that the young Catt dislodges from ice at the start of the story, aided by her beloved father. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she says; "a lovely toy", he replies, "the nuanced interpretations of terms circulating in their speech like hard candy". The author narrates Emma's story with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not hers, exactly."

Letdown and Fragmentation

I was fated to feel let down when I wished this fresh tone could persist to the end. Kraus says here that she is annoyed by the satisfaction readers like me have taken from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disruption, to the messy artistic approach she has in common with her inspiration Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her previous novels returns in the second segment. The protagonist is working on refurbishing multiple decrepit residences in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while traveling between the Midwest and the West Coast, unsuccessful in assisting Paul control his drinking. She is overwhelmed as Paul transitions between low-resource employment as an addiction therapist in a society driven by the hostility and dread that drives a political win. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt being cancelled on a platform, her occupation changed from "writer" to "property owner" on the online encyclopedia. The author still appears to be overly concerned about this. In a moment she says that she's investigating the murder so that before leaving Minnesota, "she might be able to learn something about an America that her social media opponents would not understand, would overlook entirely".

The Homicide Account

Thus we arrive to the actual killing – and the eponymous day spent by the murdered individual with the killer and his associates. Kraus has excellent raw material, and reconstructs step by step what happened when a man named Brandon came to visit Brittney after connecting via an application where she marketed explicit images. He sought a sexual encounter but seems affably to have spent the day in the company of her associates, mooching around getting his car mended and covering the cost of food and substances, before being murdered by her romantic interest a man named Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has often been institutionalized for fits of anger.

Preoccupation and Open Ends

Catt develops an obsession by the story, and I found myself captivated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards ethical reporting and reckless transgression tussle in this section. Yet I wished her to delve deeper into her individual preoccupations here. The compelling persona is the character Brittney, who gains dimension in part due to Catt's identification with her – another bright, bullied girl spiraling out of control in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus notes that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in detention, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The whole section feels curiously unresolved, to the point that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par