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The Four Spent the Day Together is populated with individuals chasing after fresh starts, trying to break free from addictions or abusive marriages, only to find hope curdling into aggression. Chris Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "clean slate", rendering it willfully cynical through recurring use. Examples include "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They opted for a clean break" appear throughout the narrative. At the same time, Kraus herself is embarking on her personal new beginning, because this presents as a novel form of writing – observational, authentically narrative. However it turns out to be filled with the same dilemmas and aesthetics as earlier books.

From Accidental Writer to Renowned Book

Kraus started out as an creative who transitioned to writing almost accidentally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, made up of missives to a distant beloved, transforming intimate women's literature from humiliation into defiance. She kept producing books, but the next trio of engaging and challenging novels missed the impact and rawness that the correspondence format brought to the voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her position as a maverick maker who had become a major property owner, so there was considerable focus on housing investments. It makes sense that she now wants to experiment with new kinds of material, directing her gaze to the experiences of others, at a moment when she asserts that current political era renders personal narrative unnecessary.

Three Generations, Collective Unavoidable Background

The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, spanning multiple eras – all unable to escape their histories. We encounter the narrative about characters Emma and Jasper, based on Kraus's parents, moving from the New York borough to rural Connecticut. There is the account of Kraus, in the persona of protagonist Catt Greene, reckoning with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her partner struggling with addiction Paul. And there is the narrative of a homicide of one troubled youth by another in a community largely deserted by liberal ideals only a short distance from Catt's cottage in rural Minnesota.

As a reader attracted to polished prose of the type the author herself typically rejects, I was enchanted by the novelistic voice of the opening part.

Being a reader who appreciates honed writing of the style that the author usually avoids, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the initial part. It exhibits a fresh level of observation that makes room for trivial aspects, like the pail that the protagonist as a child pries out of frozen water at the start of the story, aided by her adored dad. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she says; "a lovely toy", he answers, "the elliptical meanings of words tumbling in their mouths like sweet treats". The author narrates Emma's story with interest and closeness. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not entirely her own."

Letdown and Fragmentation

I was destined to be disappointed when I hoped this fresh tone could persist to the end. Kraus says here that she dislikes the satisfaction readers like me have taken from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disjunction, to the untidy aesthetics she echoes from her hero writer Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her past books reasserts itself in the second segment. Catt Greene is working on refurbishing multiple decrepit residences in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while moving between two different states, unsuccessful in assisting her husband control his drinking. She is overwhelmed as her spouse cycles through low-resource employment as an addiction therapist in a society propelled by the hostility and dread that drives an electoral success. A significant portion discusses about Catt being cancelled on social media, her listed profession modified from "author" to "property owner" on a reference site. Kraus still seems to be overly concerned about this. On one occasion she says that she's researching the homicide so that before exiting the region, "she might be able to learn something about an the United States that her social media opponents would not understand, would not even perceive".

The Killing Story

Thus we arrive to the actual killing – and the referenced day passed by the deceased with the perpetrator and his friends. Kraus has compelling foundational content, and knows hour by hour what happened when Brandon came to visit Brittney after connecting via an application where she marketed explicit images. He was hoping for sex but seems affably to have spent the day with her companions, loitering having his vehicle repaired and covering the cost of food and substances, before being shot by Brittney's boyfriend a man named Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has often been institutionalized for violent rage.

Preoccupation and Open Ends

Catt gets obsessed by the story, and I was intrigued by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards responsible documentation and daring boundary-pushing tussle in this section. But I'd have liked her to explore more thoroughly her individual preoccupations here. The standout figure is Brittney herself, who comes alive partially because of Catt seeing herself in her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual going off the rails in a struggling, neglected community. The author informs us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in detention, but she fails to enact these dialogues. This entire part feels oddly unfinished, to the degree that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par