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The Four Spent the Day Together is populated with characters seeking clean slates, struggling to escape addictions or abusive marriages, only to witness hope devolve into conflict. The author often employs the phrase "clean slate", rendering it intentionally weary through constant reiteration. Phrases such as "He could make a fresh start" and "They decided to make a fresh start" recur in the text. And yet, Kraus herself appears to be undertaking her personal new beginning, because this presents as a new kind of book – observational, truly literary. However it turns out to be packed with the recurring issues and aesthetics as earlier books.

From Unplanned Author to Iconic Work

Chris Kraus started out as an artist who entered the literary world unintentionally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, structured as missives to a distant beloved, converting intimate women's literature from abjection into rebellion. She continued writing, but the three subsequent engaging and challenging novels lacked the power and directness that the correspondence format brought to the voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her role as a renegade artist who had turned into a extensive real estate holder, so there was considerable focus on property transactions. It follows that she currently desires to experiment with fresh narrative sources, turning outward to the experiences of others, at a period in which she states that contemporary political climate renders personal narrative obsolete.

Three Generations, Shared Inescapable History

The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, encompassing multiple eras – each trapped by their backgrounds. There is the narrative about Emma and Jasper, representations of her own mother and father, relocating from the New York borough to a pastoral setting. There is the account of Kraus, in the guise of protagonist Catt Greene, grappling with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her addict husband Paul. The third thread involves the account of a killing of one directionless individual by another in a community long abandoned by forward-thinking policies only a brief drive from Catt's rural residence in rural Minnesota.

From my perspective as a reader attracted to refined literature of the sort Kraus tends to eschew, I was captivated by the narrative style of the first section.

Being a reader who favors crafted language of the variety that Kraus often disregards, I was captivated by the literary tone of the opening segment. There is a fresh level of observation that makes room for minutiae, like the pail that the youthful Catt frees from the ice at the opening of the book, helped by her cherished parent. "I found an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a great plaything", he replies, "the nuanced interpretations of terms circulating in their speech like sweet treats". Kraus writes Emma's narrative with interest and closeness. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not hers, exactly."

Letdown and Fragmentation

I was fated to feel let down when I expected this new voice could continue through the novel. Kraus says here that she dislikes the enjoyment those who appreciate polished prose have derived from I Love Dick; she's committed to disruption, to the untidy aesthetics she shares with her idol Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her past books returns in the second segment. Catt is working on refurbishing multiple decrepit residences in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while traveling between Minnesota and LA, unsuccessful in assisting Paul control his drinking. She feels helpless as her spouse transitions between underfunded jobs as an addiction therapist in a society propelled by the rage and anxiety that drives Trump's victory. Multiple pages are devoted about the protagonist facing cancellation on Twitter, her listed profession modified from "writer" to "property owner" on Wikipedia. She still gives the impression to invest excessive emotion about this. At one point she states that she's researching the homicide so that before departing the state, "she might be able to learn something about an the nation that her online critics would not understand, would not even perceive".

The Homicide Account

So then we come to the homicide in question – and the eponymous day passed by the victim with the perpetrator and his associates. The author possesses excellent raw material, and knows hour by hour what occurred as the victim Brandon came to meet Brittney after connecting via an application where she sold sex pictures. He sought a sexual encounter but seems affably to have spent the day alongside her friends, wandering about having his vehicle repaired and paying for snacks and drugs, before being murdered by Brittney's partner Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has often been institutionalized for fits of anger.

Fascination and Incompletion

Catt develops an obsession by the story, and I was intrigued by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards ethical reporting and audacious rule-breaking tussle in this section. Yet I wished her to go further into her own obsessions here. The compelling persona is Brittney herself, who comes alive partially because of Catt seeing herself in her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman going off the rails in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus notes that Catt speaks to Brittney in prison, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The whole section feels curiously unresolved, to the degree that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par