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The Four Spent the Day Together is populated with characters chasing after new beginnings, trying to break free from drugs or abusive marriages, only to see hope turn into aggression. Chris Kraus frequently uses the phrase "clean slate", making it deliberately jaded through recurring use. Phrases such as "He aimed to start over" and "They decided to make a fresh start" appear throughout the narrative. Meanwhile, the author herself seems to be making her personal new beginning, as this seems a novel form of writing – observational, genuinely novelistic. Yet it turns out to be filled with the same dilemmas and aesthetics as her previous works.

From Chance Novelist to Cult Classic

Chris Kraus started out as an artist who entered the literary world unintentionally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, structured as letters to an unreceptive lover, elevating personal female narrative from abjection into rebellion. She continued writing, but the three subsequent engaging and challenging novels did not possess the shock and immediacy that the letter form brought to the voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her identity as a nonconformist creator who had turned into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was considerable focus on real estate deals. It follows that she presently aims to try out new kinds of material, looking outwards to external narratives, at a time when she states that Trumpian politics makes confessional writing unnecessary.

Multiple Generations, Collective Unavoidable Background

The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, covering three generations – all unable to escape their pasts. The book includes the narrative about a couple named Emma and Jasper, representations of Kraus's parents, relocating from the New York borough to a pastoral setting. There is the account of Kraus, in the persona of Catt Greene, confronting the belated success of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her substance-dependent spouse her husband Paul. Finally the account of a killing of one directionless individual by another in a community long abandoned by progressive politics only 80 miles from Catt's rural residence in a remote part of Minnesota.

As a reader attracted to refined literature of the kind Kraus typically rejects, I was enchanted by the novelistic voice of the first section.

As someone who reads who favors precise prose of the variety that Kraus usually avoids, I was won over by the storytelling approach of the first section. It possesses a new quality of attentiveness that accommodates trivial aspects, like the container that the youthful Catt dislodges from ice at the beginning of the narrative, aided by her adored dad. "Look, an ice toy!" she declares; "a lovely toy", he answers, "the elliptical meanings of words rolling around in their mouths like sweet treats". The author narrates the tale of Emma with interest and closeness. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not precisely her dream."

Letdown and Fragmentation

I was bound to become frustrated when I wished this different style could continue through the novel. The author states here that she dislikes the enjoyment readers like me have derived from I Love Dick; she's devoted to fragmentation, to the unpolished style she shares with her hero writer Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her earlier works reasserts itself in the middle section. Catt is attempting to do up multiple decrepit residences in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while shuttling between Minnesota and LA, failing to help her husband curb his addiction. She is overwhelmed as her spouse transitions between low-resource employment as an recovery specialist in a world driven by the rage and anxiety that drives Trump's victory. A significant portion discusses about Catt being cancelled on Twitter, her occupation changed from "writer" to "real estate holder" on the online encyclopedia. She still gives the impression to be overly concerned about this. In a moment she says that she's investigating the murder so that before leaving Minnesota, "she may grasp something about an America that her Twitter detractors would not understand, would not even see".

The Murder Narrative

Then we reach to the homicide in question – and the referenced day experienced by the murdered individual with the perpetrator and his companions. The author possesses compelling foundational content, and reconstructs step by step what occurred as Brandon came to see Brittney after meeting her on an app where she offered adult photos. He was hoping for sex but appears congenially to have passed the day in the company of her associates, mooching around having his vehicle repaired and funding treats and narcotics, before being murdered by Brittney's partner Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has often been institutionalized for fits of anger.

Preoccupation and Open Ends

Catt gets obsessed by the story, and I was intrigued by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards accurate chronicling and reckless transgression tussle in this section. However, I would have preferred her to explore more thoroughly her own obsessions here. The most interesting character is Brittney herself, who gains dimension partially because of Catt seeing herself in her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual spiraling out of control in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus tells us that Catt converses with Brittney in prison, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. The complete segment feels strangely incomplete, to the extent that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par