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The Four Spent the Day Together features characters seeking fresh starts, trying to break free from drugs or toxic relationships, only to see hope turn into conflict. Chris Kraus often employs the phrase "clean slate", making it deliberately jaded through recurring use. Sentences like "He aimed to start over" and "They opted for a clean break" appear throughout the text. And yet, Kraus herself seems to be making her individual reinvention, because this seems a different type of work – fact-based, authentically narrative. Yet it reveals itself to be laden with the same dilemmas and aesthetics as her previous works.

From Unplanned Author to Iconic Work

Chris Kraus began as an creative who entered the literary world almost accidentally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, structured as letters to an unreceptive lover, converting personal female narrative from self-debasement into defiance. She persisted as a writer, but the following three fascinating and rebarbative novels did not possess the shock and immediacy that the correspondence format brought to the voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her identity as a maverick maker who had become a extensive real estate holder, so there was significant attention on housing investments. It follows that she currently desires to explore new kinds of material, looking outwards to the experiences of others, at a time when she states that contemporary political climate renders personal narrative redundant.

Three Generations, Collective Unavoidable Background

The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, spanning several time periods – each trapped by their histories. The book includes the tale of Emma and Jasper, representations of Kraus's parents, relocating from the urban environment to the Connecticut countryside. Additionally the story of Kraus herself, in the persona of Catt Greene, confronting the belated success of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse her husband Paul. Finally the account of a killing of one troubled youth by another in a community mostly forsaken by liberal ideals only 80 miles from the protagonist's home in a remote part of Minnesota.

For this reader drawn to honed writing of the type Kraus herself often avoids, I was seduced by the literary tone of the opening part.

Being a reader drawn to honed writing of the style that the author tends to eschew, I was won over by the storytelling approach of the initial part. It possesses a fresh level of observation that allows space for trivial aspects, like the container that the youthful Catt pries out of frozen water at the beginning of the narrative, helped by her beloved father. "I found an ice toy!" she says; "a nice toy", he responds, "the nuanced interpretations of terms tumbling in their mouths like sweet treats". The author narrates Emma's narrative with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not hers, exactly."

Disappointment and Disjunction

I was fated to feel let down when I expected this fresh tone could continue through the novel. Kraus notes here that she resents the pleasure readers like me have derived from I Love Dick; she's committed to disruption, to the unpolished style she has in common with her idol Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her past books returns in the middle section. Catt is attempting to do up three dozen dilapidated units in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while shuttling between two different states, failing to help Paul control his drinking. She experiences powerlessness as her spouse moves between poorly supported positions as an addiction therapist in a world propelled by the anger and fear that underpins a political win. A significant portion discusses about Catt being cancelled on a platform, her occupation changed from "author" to "property owner" on Wikipedia. The author still appears to care a little too much about this. At one point she remarks that she's investigating the murder so that before departing the state, "she may grasp something about an the United States that her social media opponents would fail to comprehend, would not even see".

The Murder Narrative

So then we come to the homicide in question – and the eponymous day passed by the murdered individual with the murderer and his friends. Kraus has excellent raw material, and reconstructs step by step what transpired when the victim Brandon came to see Brittney after connecting via an application where she marketed explicit images. He was hoping for sex but seems amiably to have occupied the day with her companions, mooching around getting his car mended and paying for snacks and drugs, before being murdered by her romantic interest Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has often been institutionalized for fits of anger.

Obsession and Unfinished Business

The protagonist becomes fixated by the narrative, and I was fascinated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards accurate chronicling and audacious rule-breaking tussle in this section. However, I would have preferred her to delve deeper into her own obsessions here. The standout figure is Brittney, who becomes vivid in part due to Catt's identification with her – another bright, bullied girl going off the rails in a troubled, forgotten town. The author informs us that Catt converses with Brittney in prison, but she fails to enact these dialogues. This entire part feels oddly unfinished, to the point that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par