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The Four Spent the Day Together features individuals pursuing clean slates, struggling to escape drugs or harmful partnerships, only to see hope turn into conflict. Chris Kraus often employs the phrase "clean slate", rendering it intentionally weary through its repetitions. Phrases such as "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They decided to make a fresh start" appear throughout the narrative. At the same time, the author herself appears to be undertaking her own fresh start, since this seems a novel form of writing – fact-based, truly literary. However it turns out to be filled with the recurring issues and aesthetics as earlier books.

From Unplanned Author to Iconic Work

Chris Kraus started out as an visual artist who transitioned to writing somewhat by chance with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, structured as epistles to an unresponsive love interest, elevating intimate women's literature from self-debasement into defiance. She kept producing books, but the three subsequent fascinating and rebarbative novels did not possess the shock and immediacy that the correspondence format imparted to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her role as a nonconformist creator who had turned into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was significant attention on housing investments. It is logical that she now wants to explore new kinds of material, directing her gaze to other people's stories, at a time when she claims that current political era renders personal narrative redundant.

Several Eras, One Unescapable Past

The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, spanning multiple eras – none able to break free from their backgrounds. We encounter the tale of a couple named Emma and Jasper, versions of the author's parents, relocating from the New York borough to rural Connecticut. Then there is the account of Kraus, in the persona of Catt Greene, reckoning with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse a man named Paul. The third thread involves the account of a killing of one directionless individual by another in a locality largely deserted by progressive politics only a brief drive from the protagonist's home in the Minnesota countryside.

As a reader drawn to refined literature of the kind Kraus often avoids, I was captivated by the narrative style of the opening part.

Being a reader who favors crafted language of the style that Kraus herself often disregards, I was seduced by the storytelling approach of the first section. It exhibits a fresh level of observation that accommodates small details, like the container that the protagonist as a child dislodges from ice at the start of the story, aided by her adored dad. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she exclaims; "a great plaything", he responds, "the nuanced interpretations of terms tumbling in their mouths like sweet treats". The author narrates the tale of Emma with inquiry and familiarity. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not hers, exactly."

Frustration and Disruption

I was fated to feel let down when I expected this new voice could continue through the novel. The author states here that she resents the pleasure those who appreciate polished prose have gotten from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disjunction, to the untidy aesthetics she shares with her inspiration writer Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her previous novels returns in the middle section. The protagonist is attempting to do up multiple decrepit residences in the city's most challenging districts while traveling between the Midwest and the West Coast, unsuccessful in assisting Paul manage his alcohol use. She feels helpless as Paul transitions between low-resource employment as an substance abuse counselor in a world driven by the anger and fear that drives a political win. There are several pages about the protagonist facing cancellation on a platform, her occupation changed from "writer" to "landlord" on the online encyclopedia. She still gives the impression to be overly concerned about this. In a moment she says that she's looking into the killing so that before exiting the region, "she may grasp something about an the United States that her social media opponents would be unable to grasp, would not even see".

The Murder Narrative

Then we reach to the murder itself – and the titular day experienced by the deceased with the perpetrator and his companions. Kraus has compelling foundational content, and reconstructs step by step what occurred as the victim Brandon came to visit Brittney after connecting via an application where she sold sex pictures. He anticipated intimacy but seems affably to have spent the day with her companions, loitering fixing his automobile and covering the cost of food and substances, before being killed by gunfire by her romantic interest Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has often been institutionalized for aggressive outbursts.

Obsession and Unfinished Business

Catt gets obsessed by the story, and I was fascinated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards accurate chronicling and audacious rule-breaking tussle in this section. Yet I wished her to explore more thoroughly her personal fixations here. The standout figure is Brittney, who gains dimension partly through Catt's identification with her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual spiraling out of control in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus notes that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in jail, but she fails to enact these dialogues. This entire part feels curiously unresolved, to the point that her narrative ends almost mid-par