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The Four Spent the Day Together centers on characters pursuing clean slates, struggling to escape addictions or harmful partnerships, only to witness hope devolve into conflict. Kraus often employs the phrase "fresh start", making it intentionally weary through its repetitions. Examples include "He aimed to start over" and "They opted for a clean break" are scattered across the text. Meanwhile, the author herself appears to be undertaking her individual reinvention, because this appears a different type of work – documentarian, truly literary. But then it proves to be filled with the recurring issues and styles as past novels.

From Unplanned Author to Iconic Work

Chris Kraus was originally an visual artist who transitioned to writing somewhat by chance with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, made up of letters to an unreceptive lover, converting intimate women's literature from humiliation into defiance. She kept producing books, but the next trio of fascinating and rebarbative novels did not possess the shock and immediacy that the correspondence format brought to the voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her position as a maverick maker who had turned into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was significant attention on property transactions. It is logical that she presently aims to explore fresh narrative sources, turning outward to the experiences of others, at a moment when she states that current political era renders personal narrative obsolete.

Several Eras, Collective Unavoidable Background

The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, spanning multiple eras – each trapped by their histories. There is the tale of Emma and Jasper, versions of the author's parents, transitioning from the urban environment to the Connecticut countryside. Additionally the narrative of the author, in the guise of a figure named Catt Greene, grappling with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her substance-dependent spouse Paul. And there is the narrative of a homicide of one lost young man by another in a locality mostly forsaken by forward-thinking policies only a brief drive from Catt's rural residence in rural Minnesota.

As a reader attracted to honed writing of the sort the author herself often avoids, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the opening part.

As someone who reads drawn to honed writing of the style that Kraus tends to eschew, I was captivated by the storytelling approach of the opening segment. It exhibits a novel degree of detail that allows space for trivial aspects, like the container that the protagonist as a child dislodges from ice at the start of the story, aided by her cherished parent. "Look, an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a great plaything", he responds, "the ambiguous meanings of language circulating in their speech like piece candy". She tells Emma's narrative with interest and closeness. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not entirely her own."

Frustration and Disruption

I was destined to be disappointed when I wished this different style could last out the book. Kraus says here that she is annoyed by the enjoyment audiences such as myself have gotten from I Love Dick; she's committed to disjunction, to the untidy aesthetics she shares with her hero Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her past books comes back in the second segment. The protagonist is working on refurbishing multiple decrepit residences in the city's most challenging districts while traveling between Minnesota and LA, unsuccessful in assisting her husband control his drinking. She experiences powerlessness as her spouse transitions between poorly supported positions as an recovery specialist in a society driven by the anger and fear that drives an electoral success. There are several pages about Catt being cancelled on social media, her professional designation altered from "author" to "real estate holder" on a reference site. Kraus still seems to care a little too much about this. At one point she states that she's investigating the murder so that before departing the state, "she might be able to learn something about an America that her social media opponents would fail to comprehend, would not even perceive".

The Murder Narrative

So then we come to the actual killing – and the eponymous day spent by the victim with the killer and his companions. The author possesses great source material, and reconstructs step by step what happened when the victim Brandon came to visit Brittney after connecting via an application where she marketed explicit images. He sought a sexual encounter but appears congenially to have passed the day with her companions, loitering getting his car mended and covering the cost of food and substances, before being murdered by Brittney's partner Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has often been institutionalized for aggressive outbursts.

Obsession and Unfinished Business

The protagonist becomes fixated by the story, and I was intrigued by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards responsible documentation and daring boundary-pushing clash in this segment. However, I would have preferred her to go further into her personal fixations here. The standout figure is Brittney herself, who becomes vivid partly through Catt's identification with her – another bright, bullied girl derailing in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus notes that Catt speaks to Brittney in prison, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. This entire part feels curiously unresolved, to the degree that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par