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The Four Spent the Day Together centers on protagonists pursuing fresh starts, struggling to escape drugs or toxic relationships, only to see hope turn into aggression. Chris Kraus often employs the phrase "clean slate", rendering it intentionally weary through recurring use. Sentences like "He could make a fresh start" and "They chose to begin anew" appear throughout the narrative. Meanwhile, the author herself seems to be making her individual reinvention, as this presents as a different type of work – documentarian, truly literary. However it proves to be filled with the familiar conflicts and aesthetics as past novels.

From Accidental Writer to Iconic Work

The writer began as an artist who became a writer unintentionally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, structured as epistles to an unresponsive love interest, converting personal female narrative from humiliation into defiance. She continued writing, but the next trio of engaging and challenging novels did not possess the impact and rawness that the letter form brought to the voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her identity as a renegade artist who had become a extensive real estate holder, so there was considerable focus on housing investments. It makes sense that she presently aims to explore new kinds of material, turning outward to external narratives, at a time when she states that Trumpian politics turns intimate literature unnecessary.

Multiple Generations, One Unescapable Past

The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, covering three generations – all unable to escape their backgrounds. The book includes the narrative about Emma and Jasper, versions of Kraus's parents, relocating from the Bronx to a pastoral setting. Then there is the account of Kraus, in the guise of protagonist Catt Greene, grappling with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her addict husband a man named Paul. Finally the narrative of a homicide of one directionless individual by another in a town mostly forsaken by liberal ideals only a short distance from Catt's cottage in the Minnesota countryside.

From my perspective as a reader fond of honed writing of the sort Kraus often avoids, I was seduced by the literary tone of the opening part.

Being a reader who appreciates honed writing of the variety that Kraus usually avoids, I was captivated by the storytelling approach of the initial part. It possesses a novel degree of detail that accommodates minutiae, like the pail that the protagonist as a child frees from the ice at the start of the story, aided by her adored dad. "I found an ice toy!" she says; "a lovely toy", he responds, "the elliptical meanings of words rolling around in their mouths like piece candy". Kraus writes Emma's story with interest and closeness. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not precisely her dream."

Frustration and Disruption

I was bound to become frustrated when I hoped this fresh tone could continue through the novel. The author states here that she is annoyed by the satisfaction those who appreciate polished prose have gotten from I Love Dick; she's committed to disruption, to the messy artistic approach she shares with her hero Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her previous novels comes back in the second segment. Catt is working on refurbishing 36 run-down apartments in the city's most challenging districts while shuttling between two different states, failing to help her husband manage his alcohol use. She is overwhelmed as her spouse cycles through poorly supported positions as an substance abuse counselor in a world fueled by the anger and fear that drives Trump's victory. There are several pages about Catt being cancelled on a platform, her listed profession modified from "author" to "landlord" on the online encyclopedia. She still gives the impression to invest excessive emotion about this. In a moment she remarks that she's looking into the killing so that before exiting the region, "she might be able to learn something about an the nation that her social media opponents would be unable to grasp, would not even perceive".

The Murder Narrative

So then we come to the murder itself – and the titular day experienced by the victim with the perpetrator and his associates. Kraus has compelling foundational content, and details moment by moment what occurred as Brandon came to visit Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she sold sex pictures. He sought a sexual encounter but seems amiably to have occupied the day in the company of her associates, mooching around fixing his automobile and paying for snacks and drugs, before being shot by her romantic interest a man named Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has frequently been hospitalised for aggressive outbursts.

Fascination and Incompletion

Catt develops an obsession by the account, and I was fascinated by the way that her twin drives towards responsible documentation and reckless transgression wrestle in this part. But I'd have liked her to delve deeper into her own obsessions here. The standout figure is Brittney herself, who becomes vivid partly through Catt seeing herself in her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman spiraling out of control 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 strangely incomplete, to the extent that her narrative ends almost mid-par