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The Four Spent the Day Together centers on protagonists chasing after fresh starts, attempting to leave behind addictions or abusive marriages, only to witness hope devolve into conflict. The author often employs the phrase "clean slate", transforming it into intentionally weary through its repetitions. Sentences like "He could make a fresh start" and "They decided to make a fresh start" appear throughout the story. And yet, the author herself appears to be undertaking her individual reinvention, as this presents as a novel form of writing – fact-based, truly literary. Yet it proves to be packed with the recurring issues and approaches as earlier books.

From Unplanned Author to Iconic Work

Chris Kraus began as an visual artist who transitioned to writing somewhat by chance with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, structured as missives to a distant beloved, converting intimate women's literature from abjection into assassination. She continued writing, but the following three compelling and abrasive novels missed the impact and rawness that the epistolary style brought to the voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her position as a maverick maker who had become a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was much discussion on housing investments. It follows that she now wants to explore new kinds of material, directing her gaze to external narratives, at a period in which she states that contemporary political climate turns intimate literature unnecessary.

Several Eras, Collective Unavoidable Background

The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, spanning multiple eras – none able to break free from their backgrounds. There is the story of a couple named Emma and Jasper, representations of her own mother and father, moving from the Bronx to the Connecticut countryside. Then there is the narrative of the author, in the character of Catt Greene, reckoning with the belated success of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse her husband Paul. And there is the account of a killing of one lost young man by another in a locality mostly forsaken by progressive politics only a brief drive from Catt's rural residence in a remote part of Minnesota.

As a reader fond of polished prose of the kind Kraus often avoids, I was enchanted by the narrative style of the opening part.

As someone who reads drawn to precise prose of the style that Kraus often disregards, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the opening segment. There is a fresh level of observation that makes room for trivial aspects, like the bucket that the protagonist as a child frees from the ice at the start of the story, assisted by her cherished parent. "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 the tale of Emma 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 wished this new voice could continue through the novel. Kraus says here that she is annoyed by the enjoyment readers like me have derived from I Love Dick; she's committed to disjunction, to the unpolished style she has in common with her hero writer Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her previous novels returns in the central part. The protagonist is working on refurbishing three dozen dilapidated units in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while traveling between two different states, unsuccessful in assisting her husband control his drinking. She experiences powerlessness as Paul cycles through poorly supported positions as an recovery specialist in a society driven by the anger and fear that drives a political win. A significant portion discusses about Catt's social media ostracism on a platform, her occupation changed from "novelist" to "property owner" on a reference site. She still gives the impression to care a little too much about this. In a moment she says that she's researching the homicide so that before leaving Minnesota, "she may grasp something about an the United States that her Twitter detractors would be unable to grasp, would not even perceive".

The Homicide Account

Then we reach to the murder itself – and the titular day experienced by the deceased with the murderer and his companions. Kraus has compelling foundational content, and knows hour by hour what transpired when a man named Brandon came to meet Brittney after meeting her on an app where she offered adult photos. He sought a sexual encounter but seems amiably to have occupied the day in the company of her associates, loitering fixing his automobile and paying for snacks and drugs, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's partner Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has often been institutionalized for violent rage.

Fascination and Incompletion

Catt gets obsessed by the account, and I was intrigued by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards responsible documentation and reckless transgression clash in this segment. However, I would have preferred her to explore more thoroughly her individual preoccupations here. The most interesting character is Brittney, who comes alive partially because of Catt's identification with her – another bright, bullied girl going off the rails in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus tells us that Catt speaks to Brittney in detention, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. This entire part feels curiously unresolved, to the point that her narrative ends almost mid-par