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The Four Spent the Day Together centers on individuals chasing after fresh starts, attempting to leave behind drugs or abusive marriages, only to see hope turn into aggression. Kraus frequently uses the phrase "clean slate", rendering it intentionally weary through constant reiteration. Sentences like "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They chose to begin anew" are scattered across the text. And yet, she is embarking on her own fresh start, because this appears a different type of work – fact-based, truly literary. But then it reveals itself to be packed with the familiar conflicts and styles as past novels.

From Unplanned Author to Cult Classic

Chris Kraus started out as an artist who transitioned to writing unintentionally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, made up of missives to a distant beloved, converting confessional female writing from humiliation into defiance. She persisted as a writer, but the next trio of fascinating and rebarbative novels lacked the shock and immediacy that the letter form imparted to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her identity as a nonconformist creator who had become a extensive real estate holder, so there was significant attention on property transactions. It follows that she now wants to try out different types of content, turning outward to other people's stories, at a period in which she states that current political era turns intimate literature unnecessary.

Three Generations, Collective Unavoidable Background

The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, encompassing three generations – all unable to escape their backgrounds. The book includes the story of characters Emma and Jasper, versions of Kraus's parents, moving from the New York borough to the Connecticut countryside. There is the account of Kraus, in the character of protagonist Catt Greene, grappling with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her addict husband a man named Paul. And there is the narrative of a homicide of one lost young man by another in a locality largely deserted by forward-thinking policies only a short distance from Catt's cottage in rural Minnesota.

From my perspective as a reader drawn to refined literature of the type Kraus often avoids, I was seduced by the narrative style of the opening part.

As a reader drawn to precise prose of the variety that Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was won over by the literary tone of the opening segment. There is a fresh level of observation that makes room for small details, like the bucket that the protagonist as a child pries out of frozen water at the beginning of the narrative, helped by her adored dad. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she declares; "a great plaything", he replies, "the elliptical meanings of words tumbling in their mouths like piece candy". She tells Emma's narrative with interest and closeness. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not precisely her dream."

Disappointment and Disjunction

I was bound to become frustrated when I wished this fresh tone could persist to the end. Kraus notes here that she dislikes the enjoyment readers like me have derived from I Love Dick; she's committed to disruption, to the messy artistic approach she has in common with her hero Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her previous novels reasserts itself in the second segment. Catt is working on refurbishing 36 run-down apartments in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while moving between two different states, unsuccessful in assisting Paul curb his addiction. She feels helpless as Paul transitions between underfunded jobs as an recovery specialist in a environment fueled by the rage and anxiety that underpins a political win. A significant portion discusses about Catt being cancelled on a platform, her occupation changed from "author" to "property owner" on Wikipedia. Kraus still seems to care a little too much about this. On one occasion she states that she's investigating the murder so that before exiting the region, "she could potentially understand something about an America that her social media opponents would be unable to grasp, would overlook entirely".

The Homicide Account

Then we reach to the homicide in question – and the titular day experienced by the victim with the killer and his associates. The author possesses excellent raw material, and knows hour by hour what happened when Brandon came to visit Brittney after meeting her on an app where she offered adult photos. He anticipated intimacy but seems affably to have spent the day in the company of her associates, loitering having his vehicle repaired and paying for snacks and drugs, before being murdered by Brittney's boyfriend a man named Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has often been institutionalized for fits of anger.

Fascination and Incompletion

Catt gets obsessed by the story, and I was intrigued by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards accurate chronicling and audacious rule-breaking clash in this segment. But I'd have liked her to go further into her own obsessions here. The most interesting character is the character Brittney, who gains dimension partly through the protagonist's connection to her – another bright, bullied girl going off the rails in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus notes that Catt speaks to Brittney in detention, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. This entire part feels oddly unfinished, to the point that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par