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The Four Spent the Day Together features protagonists pursuing clean slates, struggling to escape drugs or harmful partnerships, only to find hope curdling into aggression. Chris Kraus frequently uses the phrase "clean slate", transforming it into intentionally weary through recurring use. Examples include "He could make a fresh start" and "They chose to begin anew" appear throughout the narrative. Meanwhile, the author herself is embarking on her personal new beginning, since this presents as a different type of work – documentarian, truly literary. But then it turns out to be filled with the recurring issues and styles as her previous works.

From Accidental Writer to Iconic Work

Kraus began as an visual artist who entered the literary world almost accidentally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, which was composed of letters to an unreceptive lover, elevating personal female narrative from humiliation into defiance. She kept producing books, but the three subsequent fascinating and rebarbative novels did not possess the impact and rawness that the epistolary style infused into the voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her role as a maverick maker who had become a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was much discussion on property transactions. It is logical that she now wants to experiment with fresh narrative sources, looking outwards to external narratives, at a moment when she asserts that Trumpian politics renders personal narrative unnecessary.

Three Generations, Shared Inescapable History

The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, covering several time periods – none able to break free from their backgrounds. There is the story of Emma and Jasper, based on the author's parents, transitioning from the New York borough to a pastoral setting. Then there is the account of Kraus, in the persona of protagonist Catt Greene, grappling with the belated success of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her addict husband Paul. And there is the story of the murder of one troubled youth by another in a town mostly forsaken by forward-thinking policies only a brief drive from Catt's cottage in a remote part of Minnesota.

For this reader fond of honed writing of the sort Kraus herself often avoids, I was seduced by the literary tone of the first section.

Being a reader who favors honed writing of the style that Kraus herself usually avoids, I was won over by the novelistic voice of the opening segment. It exhibits a novel degree of detail that allows space for minutiae, like the pail that the young Catt pries out of frozen water at the start of the story, helped by her beloved father. "I found an ice toy!" she declares; "a nice toy", he answers, "the ambiguous meanings of language circulating in their speech like hard candy". She tells Emma's story with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not hers, exactly."

Letdown and Fragmentation

I was fated to feel let down when I expected this different style could continue through the novel. Kraus notes here that she is annoyed by the enjoyment readers like me have taken from I Love Dick; she's committed to disruption, to the messy artistic approach she has in common with her idol Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her past books comes back in the second segment. Catt is attempting to do up 36 run-down apartments in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while moving between the Midwest and the West Coast, failing to help Paul curb his addiction. She experiences powerlessness as Paul cycles through underfunded jobs as an substance abuse counselor in a world driven by the rage and anxiety that powers Trump's victory. A significant portion discusses about the protagonist facing cancellation on Twitter, her listed profession modified from "author" to "property owner" on Wikipedia. The author still appears to invest excessive emotion about this. At one point she remarks that she's looking into the killing so that before exiting the region, "she could potentially understand something about an the United States that her social media opponents would not understand, would overlook entirely".

The Murder Narrative

Thus we arrive to the murder itself – and the referenced day spent by the murdered individual with the killer and his friends. Kraus utilizes compelling foundational content, and reconstructs step by step what transpired when Brandon came to see Brittney after connecting via an application where she sold sex pictures. He sought a sexual encounter but appears congenially to have passed the day in the company of her associates, loitering having his vehicle repaired and funding treats and narcotics, before being killed by gunfire by her romantic interest Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has frequently been hospitalised for fits of anger.

Obsession and Unfinished Business

The protagonist becomes fixated by the narrative, and I found myself captivated by the way that her twin drives towards accurate chronicling and daring boundary-pushing clash in this segment. Yet I wished her to delve deeper into her personal fixations here. The standout figure is Brittney, who comes alive in part due to Catt's identification with her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman spiraling out of control in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus tells us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in jail, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. This entire part feels strangely incomplete, to the point that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par