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The Four Spent the Day Together is populated with protagonists pursuing new beginnings, trying to break free from addictions or toxic relationships, only to witness hope devolve into aggression. Chris Kraus frequently uses the phrase "clean slate", transforming it into intentionally weary through recurring use. Phrases such as "He aimed to start over" and "They opted for a clean break" recur in the text. And yet, she appears to be undertaking her own fresh start, as this seems a different type of work – documentarian, truly literary. Yet it turns out to be packed with the familiar conflicts and styles as past novels.

From Chance Novelist to Iconic Work

Kraus started out as an visual artist who became a writer almost accidentally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, structured as missives to a distant beloved, converting intimate women's literature from abjection into rebellion. She kept producing books, but the following three engaging and challenging novels lacked the shock and immediacy that the correspondence format brought to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her role as a nonconformist creator who had become a extensive real estate holder, so there was significant attention on property transactions. It is logical that she now wants to experiment with new kinds of material, looking outwards to external narratives, at a moment when she asserts that contemporary political climate makes confessional writing unnecessary.

Three Generations, 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 histories. The book includes the narrative about characters Emma and Jasper, based on the author's parents, relocating from the Bronx to a pastoral setting. Additionally the account of Kraus, in the persona of protagonist Catt Greene, grappling with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her substance-dependent spouse a man named Paul. The third thread involves the account of a killing of one lost young man by another in a locality mostly forsaken by forward-thinking policies only a brief drive from Catt's cottage in rural Minnesota.

For this reader attracted to refined literature of the kind Kraus herself typically rejects, I was seduced by the narrative style of the opening part.

Being a reader who appreciates honed writing of the kind that Kraus usually avoids, I was won over by the novelistic voice of the opening segment. It possesses a fresh level of observation that allows space for small details, like the bucket that the youthful Catt pries out of frozen water at the start of the story, aided by her cherished parent. "Look, an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a lovely toy", he responds, "the ambiguous meanings of language tumbling in their mouths like piece candy". Kraus writes Emma's story with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not entirely her own."

Letdown and Fragmentation

I was bound to become frustrated when I expected this fresh tone could last out the book. The author states here that she is annoyed by the enjoyment readers like me have gotten from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to fragmentation, to the unpolished style she echoes from her idol writer Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her previous novels comes back in the second segment. The protagonist is trying to renovate multiple decrepit residences in the city's most challenging districts while moving between two different states, unable to aid her husband manage his alcohol use. She is overwhelmed as Paul moves between underfunded jobs as an addiction therapist in a world propelled by the anger and fear that powers an electoral success. A significant portion discusses about Catt's social media ostracism on social media, her listed profession modified from "novelist" to "property owner" on Wikipedia. She still gives the impression to invest excessive emotion about this. In a moment she says that she's looking into the killing so that before exiting the region, "she could potentially understand 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 murder itself – and the referenced day experienced by the murdered individual with the killer and his companions. Kraus utilizes compelling foundational content, and reconstructs step by step what occurred as the victim Brandon came to see Brittney after meeting her on an app where she marketed explicit images. He sought a sexual encounter but seems affably to have spent the day in the company of her associates, loitering having his vehicle repaired and covering the cost of food and substances, before being murdered by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has frequently been hospitalised for fits of anger.

Preoccupation and Open Ends

The protagonist becomes fixated by the narrative, and I was fascinated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards responsible documentation and audacious rule-breaking 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 in part due to Catt's identification with her – another bright, bullied girl spiraling out of control in a difficult, overlooked locality. The author informs us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in jail, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. This entire part feels strangely incomplete, to the degree that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par