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The Four Spent the Day Together features individuals pursuing clean slates, struggling to escape addictions or abusive marriages, only to witness hope devolve into conflict. Chris Kraus often employs the phrase "clean slate", rendering it deliberately jaded through recurring use. Phrases such as "He aimed to start over" and "They decided to make a fresh start" appear throughout the story. And yet, she seems to be making her own fresh start, because this seems a novel form of writing – observational, authentically narrative. Yet it turns out to be laden with the recurring issues and aesthetics as her previous works.

From Chance Novelist to Renowned Book

The writer was originally an artist who became a writer somewhat by chance with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, which was composed of letters to an unreceptive lover, elevating confessional female writing from humiliation into assassination. She kept producing books, but the next trio of compelling and abrasive novels lacked the impact and rawness that the epistolary style imparted to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her position as a nonconformist creator who had turned into a major property owner, so there was much discussion on real estate deals. It follows that she currently desires to explore fresh narrative sources, directing her gaze to external narratives, at a time when she states that current political era turns intimate literature obsolete.

Three Generations, Shared Inescapable History

The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, encompassing three generations – each trapped by their histories. There is the narrative about characters Emma and Jasper, representations of her own mother and father, transitioning from the urban environment to a pastoral setting. There is the account of Kraus, in the persona of Catt Greene, reckoning with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her substance-dependent spouse Paul. The third thread involves the story of the murder of one lost young man by another in a locality long abandoned by liberal ideals only a short distance from Catt's cottage in a remote part of Minnesota.

As a reader fond of refined literature of the type the author herself often avoids, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the first section.

As a reader who favors honed writing of the style that the author often disregards, I was seduced by the storytelling approach of the initial part. There is a fresh level of observation that accommodates minutiae, like the container that the young Catt dislodges from ice at the beginning of the narrative, aided by her adored dad. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she declares; "a great plaything", he responds, "the elliptical meanings of words rolling around in their mouths like sweet treats". The author narrates Emma's story with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not hers, exactly."

Frustration and Disruption

I was bound to become frustrated when I hoped this new voice could continue through the novel. Kraus notes here that she dislikes the satisfaction those who appreciate polished prose have derived from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to fragmentation, to the untidy aesthetics she has in common with her inspiration author Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her previous novels reasserts itself in the second segment. The protagonist is working on refurbishing three dozen dilapidated units in the city's most challenging districts while shuttling between the Midwest and the West Coast, unsuccessful in assisting her husband curb his addiction. She experiences powerlessness as her spouse cycles through low-resource employment as an recovery specialist in a society fueled by the anger and fear that drives a political win. There are several pages about Catt's social media ostracism on Twitter, her listed profession modified from "writer" to "property owner" on Wikipedia. Kraus still seems to care a little too much about this. At one point she states that she's researching the homicide so that before exiting the region, "she may grasp something about an America that her social media opponents would fail to comprehend, would not even perceive".

The Killing Story

Thus we arrive to the murder itself – and the titular day spent by the murdered individual with the perpetrator and his associates. Kraus utilizes great source material, and details moment by moment what transpired when a man named Brandon came to see Brittney after connecting via an application where she marketed explicit images. He was hoping for sex but seems amiably to have occupied the day alongside her friends, mooching around having his vehicle repaired and funding treats and narcotics, before being killed by gunfire by her romantic interest Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has often been institutionalized for violent rage.

Fascination and Incompletion

The protagonist becomes fixated by the account, and I found myself captivated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards responsible documentation and daring boundary-pushing wrestle in this part. Yet I wished her to go further into her individual preoccupations here. The standout figure is the character Brittney, who comes alive partially because of Catt seeing herself in her – another bright, bullied girl spiraling out of control in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus tells us that Catt converses with Brittney in jail, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. The whole section feels oddly unfinished, to the degree that her narrative ends almost mid-par