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The Four Spent the Day Together features individuals seeking fresh starts, attempting to leave behind addictions or toxic relationships, only to witness hope devolve into conflict. Chris Kraus frequently uses the phrase "clean slate", transforming it into willfully cynical through constant reiteration. Examples include "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They chose to begin anew" are scattered across the story. At the same time, the author herself is embarking on her personal new beginning, because this appears a different type of work – fact-based, genuinely novelistic. However it reveals itself to be packed with the familiar conflicts and approaches as her previous works.

From Accidental Writer to Iconic Work

Kraus was originally an visual artist who transitioned to writing almost accidentally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, which was composed of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, converting personal female narrative from self-debasement into rebellion. She kept producing books, but the following three fascinating and rebarbative novels did not possess the impact and rawness that the epistolary style infused into the voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her position as a nonconformist creator who had evolved into a major property owner, so there was much discussion on property transactions. It follows that she now wants to experiment with different types of content, turning outward to other people's stories, at a moment when she asserts that contemporary political climate turns intimate literature unnecessary.

Several Eras, Shared Inescapable History

The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, covering multiple eras – each trapped by their histories. We encounter the tale of Emma and Jasper, representations of the author's parents, relocating from the New York borough to the Connecticut countryside. Then there is the narrative of the author, in the guise of a figure named Catt Greene, reckoning with the belated success of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her addict husband a man named Paul. And there is the narrative of a homicide of one directionless individual by another in a locality mostly forsaken by progressive politics only a short distance from the protagonist's home in a remote part of Minnesota.

For this reader drawn to honed writing of the sort the author herself often avoids, I was enchanted by the narrative style of the initial segment.

As a reader who favors precise prose of the style that the author tends to eschew, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the initial part. There is a novel degree of detail that allows space for small details, like the bucket that the young Catt frees from the ice at the opening of the book, aided by her cherished parent. "I found an ice toy!" she declares; "a great plaything", he responds, "the nuanced interpretations of terms tumbling in their mouths like sweet treats". Kraus writes the tale of Emma with interest and closeness. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not precisely her dream."

Frustration and Disruption

I was destined to be disappointed when I hoped this different style could continue through the novel. Kraus says here that she is annoyed by the satisfaction readers like me have taken from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disruption, to the unpolished style she shares with her idol author Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her previous novels returns in the second segment. The protagonist is trying to renovate 36 run-down apartments in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while traveling between two different states, unsuccessful in assisting her husband curb his addiction. She experiences powerlessness as Paul cycles through low-resource employment as an substance abuse counselor in a society driven by the anger and fear that underpins an electoral success. A significant portion discusses about Catt's social media ostracism on a platform, her listed profession modified from "writer" to "property owner" on Wikipedia. Kraus still seems to invest excessive emotion about this. In a moment she remarks that she's looking into the killing so that before exiting the region, "she may grasp something about an the nation that her social media opponents would not understand, would not even see".

The Murder Narrative

Then we reach to the actual killing – and the titular day spent by the victim with the perpetrator and his associates. Kraus has compelling foundational content, and details moment by moment what happened when Brandon came to see Brittney after connecting via an application where she marketed explicit images. He was hoping for sex but seems affably to have spent the day in the company of her associates, loitering fixing his automobile and covering the cost of food and substances, before being murdered by her romantic interest a man named Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has repeatedly received inpatient care for violent rage.

Fascination and Incompletion

Catt develops an obsession 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. But I'd have liked her to delve deeper into her personal fixations here. The most interesting character is the character Brittney, who comes alive partly through Catt seeing herself in her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual spiraling out of control in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus notes that Catt converses with Brittney in detention, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The whole section feels oddly unfinished, to the degree that her narrative ends almost mid-par