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The Four Spent the Day Together centers on protagonists pursuing clean slates, struggling to escape addictions or abusive marriages, only to witness hope devolve into violence. Chris Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "clean slate", making it deliberately jaded through its repetitions. Examples include "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They decided to make a fresh start" appear throughout the narrative. And yet, Kraus herself appears to be undertaking her individual reinvention, since this seems a different type of work – fact-based, genuinely novelistic. However it turns out to be filled with the recurring issues and styles as past novels.

From Unplanned Author to Renowned Book

Kraus began as an artist who became a writer unintentionally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, which was composed of letters to an unreceptive lover, elevating confessional female writing from humiliation into rebellion. She persisted as a writer, but the next trio of engaging and challenging novels lacked the power and directness that the letter form infused into the narrative voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her position as a maverick maker who had evolved into a extensive real estate holder, so there was considerable focus on property transactions. It is logical that she currently desires to explore new kinds of material, looking outwards to external narratives, at a time when she states that current political era renders personal narrative unnecessary.

Three Generations, Shared Inescapable History

The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, covering multiple eras – all unable to escape their histories. There is the tale of Emma and Jasper, versions of her own mother and father, moving from the urban environment to a pastoral setting. There is the account of Kraus, in the character of Catt Greene, grappling with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction her husband Paul. The third thread involves the account of a killing of one directionless individual by another in a locality long abandoned by liberal ideals only a brief drive from Catt's cottage in rural Minnesota.

For this reader attracted to refined literature of the kind the author herself often avoids, I was captivated by the narrative style of the first section.

As someone who reads who favors crafted language of the style that Kraus herself often disregards, I was captivated by the literary tone of the opening segment. It exhibits a fresh level of observation that makes room for small details, like the pail that the protagonist as a child pries out of frozen water at the start of the story, aided by her cherished parent. "Look, an ice toy!" she says; "a nice toy", he answers, "the ambiguous meanings of language tumbling in their mouths like hard candy". Kraus writes Emma's story with curiosity and intimacy. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not entirely her own."

Disappointment and Disjunction

I was bound to become frustrated when I wished this new voice could continue through the novel. Kraus notes here that she dislikes the pleasure readers like me have gotten from I Love Dick; she's committed to disruption, to the messy artistic approach she has in common with her hero writer Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her previous novels comes back in the second segment. The protagonist is attempting to do up three dozen dilapidated units in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while traveling between the Midwest and the West Coast, unable to aid Paul control his drinking. She is overwhelmed as Paul transitions between poorly supported positions as an substance abuse counselor in a world fueled by the rage and anxiety that underpins a political win. A significant portion discusses about the protagonist facing cancellation on Twitter, her occupation changed from "writer" to "real estate holder" on the online encyclopedia. Kraus still seems to care a little too much about this. At one point 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 be unable to grasp, would not even see".

The Homicide Account

So then we come to the actual killing – and the referenced day passed by the victim with the killer and his friends. The author possesses excellent raw material, and reconstructs step by step what happened when a man named Brandon came to see Brittney after connecting via an application where she offered adult photos. He anticipated intimacy but seems amiably to have occupied the day in the company of her associates, wandering about 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 violent rage.

Obsession and Unfinished Business

Catt develops an obsession by the narrative, and I found myself captivated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards responsible documentation and audacious rule-breaking clash in this segment. However, I would have preferred her to go further into her personal fixations here. The most interesting character is Brittney herself, who comes alive in part due to Catt's identification with her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual spiraling out of control in a difficult, overlooked locality. The author informs us that Catt speaks to Brittney in detention, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. The complete segment feels strangely incomplete, to the point that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par