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The Four Spent the Day Together centers on protagonists pursuing clean slates, trying to break free from addictions or abusive marriages, only to witness hope devolve into conflict. Kraus frequently uses the phrase "clean slate", rendering it intentionally weary through constant reiteration. Examples include "He aimed to start over" and "They chose to begin anew" are scattered across the story. Meanwhile, she is embarking on her own fresh start, because this presents as a different type of work – fact-based, authentically narrative. But then it turns out to be laden with the familiar conflicts and aesthetics as her previous works.

From Chance Novelist to Iconic Work

Chris Kraus began as an creative who became a writer unintentionally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, which was composed of letters to an unreceptive lover, transforming intimate women's literature from humiliation into assassination. She persisted as a writer, but the three subsequent engaging and challenging novels did not possess the power and directness that the epistolary style brought to the tone of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her role as a nonconformist creator who had turned into a extensive real estate holder, so there was much discussion on housing investments. It makes sense that she currently desires to experiment with fresh narrative sources, directing her gaze to external narratives, at a period in which she asserts that contemporary political climate renders personal narrative obsolete.

Three Generations, One Unescapable Past

The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, encompassing multiple eras – all unable to escape their histories. The book includes the story of Emma and Jasper, based on Kraus's parents, moving from the Bronx to the Connecticut countryside. There is the story of Kraus herself, in the guise of protagonist Catt Greene, grappling with the belated success of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her substance-dependent spouse a man named Paul. Finally the account of a killing of one lost young man by another in a locality mostly forsaken by liberal ideals only 80 miles from Catt's rural residence in the Minnesota countryside.

For this reader attracted to refined literature of the type the author herself tends to eschew, I was enchanted by the narrative style of the first section.

As someone who reads who favors crafted language of the style that the author usually avoids, I was won over by the novelistic voice of the initial part. There is a fresh level of observation that allows space for trivial aspects, like the bucket that the protagonist as a child frees from the ice at the opening of the book, helped by her beloved father. "I found an ice toy!" she says; "a nice toy", he answers, "the elliptical meanings of words circulating in their speech like piece candy". She tells Emma's story with inquiry and familiarity. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not entirely her own."

Frustration and Disruption

I was destined to be disappointed when I expected this fresh tone could persist to the end. Kraus notes here that she is annoyed by the pleasure audiences such as myself have gotten from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disruption, to the untidy aesthetics she has in common with her inspiration author Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her earlier works returns in the second segment. Catt is trying to renovate multiple decrepit residences in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while shuttling between the Midwest and the West Coast, unsuccessful in assisting Paul control his drinking. She is overwhelmed as Paul cycles through underfunded jobs as an addiction therapist in a environment fueled by the anger and fear that drives Trump's victory. There are several pages about the protagonist facing cancellation on Twitter, her professional designation altered from "novelist" to "real estate holder" on a reference site. The author still appears to be overly concerned about this. On one occasion she says that she's investigating the murder so that before leaving Minnesota, "she may grasp something about an America that her social media opponents would fail to comprehend, would overlook entirely".

The Homicide Account

So then we come to the actual killing – and the titular day experienced by the murdered individual with the perpetrator and his associates. Kraus utilizes excellent raw material, and reconstructs step by step what occurred as the victim Brandon came to meet Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she marketed explicit images. He anticipated intimacy but seems amiably to have occupied the day alongside her friends, loitering fixing his automobile and paying for snacks and drugs, before being murdered by her romantic interest a man named Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has repeatedly received inpatient care for aggressive outbursts.

Obsession and Unfinished Business

Catt develops an obsession by the account, and I was fascinated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards ethical reporting and reckless transgression wrestle in this part. However, I would have preferred her to explore more thoroughly her own obsessions here. The most interesting character is the character Brittney, who becomes vivid partly through Catt seeing herself in her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman derailing in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus tells us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in prison, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The complete segment feels curiously unresolved, to the point that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par