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The Four Spent the Day Together centers on protagonists chasing after fresh starts, trying to break free from substance abuse or toxic relationships, only to witness hope devolve into aggression. Kraus often employs the phrase "clean slate", rendering it intentionally weary through its repetitions. Sentences like "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They chose to begin anew" appear throughout the narrative. Meanwhile, the author herself is embarking on her individual reinvention, because this appears a new kind of book – fact-based, authentically narrative. But then it turns out to be packed with the recurring issues and approaches as her previous works.

From Chance Novelist to Iconic Work

Chris Kraus was originally an artist who entered the literary world unintentionally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, which was composed of missives to a distant beloved, transforming confessional female writing from humiliation into defiance. She persisted as a writer, but the next trio of compelling and abrasive novels missed the shock and immediacy that the letter form brought to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her identity as a nonconformist creator who had evolved into a major property owner, so there was much discussion on housing investments. It makes sense that she now wants to experiment with new kinds of material, turning outward to other people's stories, at a time when she asserts that Trumpian politics renders personal narrative unnecessary.

Three Generations, Collective Unavoidable Background

The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, encompassing three generations – all unable to escape their backgrounds. We encounter the story of characters Emma and Jasper, representations of her own mother and father, relocating from the Bronx to rural Connecticut. Additionally the story of Kraus herself, in the persona of protagonist Catt Greene, grappling with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse her husband Paul. Finally the account of a killing of one directionless individual by another in a town long abandoned by liberal ideals only a brief drive from Catt's cottage in the Minnesota countryside.

From my perspective as a reader attracted to polished prose of the kind Kraus often avoids, I was seduced by the literary tone of the first section.

As a reader who favors crafted language of the variety that Kraus herself usually avoids, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the opening segment. It possesses a fresh level of observation that makes room for trivial aspects, like the container that the youthful Catt frees from the ice at the beginning of the narrative, aided by her beloved father. "I found an ice toy!" she says; "a great plaything", he answers, "the ambiguous meanings of language tumbling in their mouths like sweet treats". The author narrates Emma's narrative with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not entirely her own."

Frustration and Disruption

I was fated to feel let down when I expected this fresh tone could continue through the novel. Kraus notes here that she is annoyed by the satisfaction audiences such as myself have taken from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disruption, to the untidy aesthetics she has in common with her idol author Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her earlier works reasserts itself in the central part. The protagonist is working on refurbishing three dozen dilapidated units in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while shuttling between Minnesota and LA, failing to help Paul curb his addiction. She experiences powerlessness as Paul transitions between low-resource employment as an recovery specialist in a world fueled by the rage and anxiety that drives Trump's victory. A significant portion discusses about the protagonist facing cancellation on social media, her professional designation altered from "novelist" to "property owner" on the online encyclopedia. Kraus still seems to invest excessive emotion about this. In a moment she states that she's investigating the murder so that before leaving Minnesota, "she may grasp something about an America that her Twitter detractors would fail to comprehend, would overlook entirely".

The Killing Story

Thus we arrive to the murder itself – and the referenced day experienced by the murdered individual with the killer and his companions. Kraus has excellent raw material, and knows hour by hour what transpired when a man named Brandon came to see Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she sold sex pictures. He sought a sexual encounter but appears congenially to have passed the day alongside her friends, wandering about getting his car mended and covering the cost of food and substances, before being shot by Brittney's partner a man named Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has repeatedly received inpatient care for fits of anger.

Fascination and Incompletion

Catt gets obsessed by the story, and I was intrigued by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards accurate chronicling and audacious rule-breaking clash in this segment. But I'd have liked her to explore more thoroughly her individual preoccupations here. The standout figure is the character Brittney, who becomes vivid partially because of the protagonist's connection to her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman spiraling out of control in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus notes that Catt converses with Brittney in detention, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. This entire part feels curiously unresolved, to the degree that her narrative ends almost mid-par