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The Four Spent the Day Together centers on characters pursuing new beginnings, attempting to leave behind drugs or abusive marriages, only to see hope turn into conflict. The author often employs the phrase "clean slate", rendering it deliberately jaded through constant reiteration. Examples include "He could make a fresh start" and "They chose to begin anew" appear throughout the narrative. Meanwhile, Kraus herself appears to be undertaking her own fresh start, because this appears a novel form of writing – observational, authentically narrative. However it turns out to be packed with the familiar conflicts and aesthetics as earlier books.

From Accidental Writer to Iconic Work

Chris Kraus was originally an visual artist who became a writer somewhat by chance with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, structured as missives to a distant beloved, converting confessional female writing from humiliation into assassination. She continued writing, but the three subsequent fascinating and rebarbative novels lacked the shock and immediacy that the letter form brought to the voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her position as a renegade artist who had evolved into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was considerable focus on housing investments. It makes sense that she presently aims to try out different types of content, turning outward to the experiences of others, at a period in which she claims that current political era turns intimate literature obsolete.

Three Generations, Shared Inescapable History

The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, covering three generations – all unable to escape their histories. There is the tale of a couple named Emma and Jasper, based on the author's parents, relocating from the urban environment to a pastoral setting. There is the account of Kraus, in the character of protagonist Catt Greene, confronting the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her addict husband Paul. Finally the story of the murder of one lost young man by another in a community long abandoned by liberal ideals only a brief drive from Catt's rural residence in rural Minnesota.

As a reader drawn to refined literature of the type Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the first section.

As a reader who appreciates precise prose of the variety that the author often disregards, I was won over by the novelistic voice of the first section. It exhibits a fresh level of observation that makes room for minutiae, like the container that the young Catt pries out of frozen water at the opening of the book, assisted by her adored dad. "Look, an ice toy!" she says; "a lovely toy", he responds, "the ambiguous meanings of language circulating in their speech like sweet treats". She tells the tale of Emma with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not hers, exactly."

Disappointment and Disjunction

I was bound to become frustrated when I expected this different style could persist to the end. Kraus says here that she resents the pleasure those who appreciate polished prose have taken from I Love Dick; she's committed to fragmentation, to the unpolished style she shares with her hero Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her previous novels returns in the middle section. The protagonist is working on refurbishing 36 run-down apartments in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while traveling between the Midwest and the West Coast, failing to help Paul control his drinking. She is overwhelmed as her spouse moves between poorly supported positions as an addiction therapist in a society propelled by the anger and fear that underpins a political win. There are several pages about Catt's social media ostracism on a platform, her professional designation altered from "novelist" to "landlord" on the online encyclopedia. Kraus still seems to be overly concerned about this. At one point she states that she's researching the homicide so that before departing the state, "she could potentially understand something about an America that her online critics would fail to comprehend, would not even see".

The Murder Narrative

Then we reach to the actual killing – and the titular day experienced by the murdered individual with the killer and his associates. The author possesses excellent raw material, and reconstructs step by step what occurred as the victim Brandon came to meet Brittney after meeting her on an app where she marketed explicit images. He was hoping for sex but seems amiably to have occupied the day with her companions, wandering about fixing his automobile and paying for snacks and drugs, before being shot by her romantic interest Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has often been institutionalized for aggressive outbursts.

Preoccupation and Open Ends

The protagonist becomes fixated by the story, and I found myself captivated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards responsible documentation and daring boundary-pushing clash in this segment. Yet I wished her to delve deeper into her own obsessions here. The standout figure is the character Brittney, who becomes vivid partly through Catt's identification with her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual derailing in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus tells us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in jail, but she fails to enact these dialogues. This entire part feels curiously unresolved, to the point that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par