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The Four Spent the Day Together is populated with individuals chasing after clean slates, attempting to leave behind addictions or harmful partnerships, only to witness hope devolve into violence. Kraus often employs the phrase "clean slate", rendering it deliberately jaded through recurring use. Sentences like "He aimed to start over" and "They decided to make a fresh start" are scattered across the story. And yet, she seems to be making her individual reinvention, as this seems a new kind of book – documentarian, genuinely novelistic. However it proves to be filled with the same dilemmas and styles as earlier books.

From Unplanned Author to Renowned Book

Chris Kraus was originally an visual artist who transitioned to writing unintentionally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, made up of letters to an unreceptive lover, transforming intimate women's literature from self-debasement into defiance. She continued writing, but the three subsequent engaging and challenging novels lacked the shock and immediacy that the correspondence format infused into the tone of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her role as a maverick maker who had evolved into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was considerable focus on housing investments. It follows that she currently desires to explore new kinds of material, directing her gaze to other people's stories, at a moment when she asserts that contemporary political climate turns intimate literature redundant.

Multiple Generations, Shared Inescapable History

The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, spanning multiple eras – all unable to escape their pasts. We encounter the narrative about a couple named Emma and Jasper, representations of her own mother and father, moving from the urban environment to rural Connecticut. Then there is the narrative of the author, in the character of protagonist Catt Greene, confronting the late recognition of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her addict husband Paul. And there is the story of the murder of one directionless individual by another in a community mostly forsaken by liberal ideals only 80 miles from Catt's cottage in the Minnesota countryside.

From my perspective as a reader attracted to polished prose of the kind Kraus typically rejects, I was enchanted by the narrative style of the opening part.

As a reader who favors crafted language of the variety that Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was seduced by the storytelling approach of the opening segment. There is a novel degree of detail that accommodates minutiae, like the bucket that the young Catt frees from the ice at the opening of the book, assisted by her adored dad. "I found an ice toy!" she says; "a great plaything", he answers, "the elliptical meanings of words rolling around in their mouths like piece candy". She tells Emma's narrative with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not precisely her dream."

Letdown and Fragmentation

I was destined to be disappointed when I wished this different style could last out the book. Kraus notes here that she is annoyed by the pleasure those who appreciate polished prose have derived from I Love Dick; she's committed to disruption, to the unpolished style she shares with her idol writer Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her earlier works returns in the middle section. The protagonist is trying to renovate multiple decrepit residences in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while shuttling between Minnesota and LA, failing to help her husband control his drinking. She experiences powerlessness as Paul cycles through underfunded jobs as an substance abuse counselor in a environment driven by the rage and anxiety that underpins a political win. A significant portion discusses about the protagonist facing cancellation on a platform, her listed profession modified from "author" to "landlord" on Wikipedia. She still gives the impression to invest excessive emotion about this. On one occasion she says that she's researching the homicide so that before departing the state, "she could potentially understand something about an the nation that her Twitter detractors would not understand, would not even perceive".

The Murder Narrative

Then we reach to the homicide in question – and the eponymous day experienced by the murdered individual with the murderer and his companions. Kraus has excellent raw material, and reconstructs step by step what transpired when Brandon came to see Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she offered adult photos. He was hoping for sex but seems amiably to have occupied the day with her companions, wandering about getting his car mended and paying for snacks and drugs, before being murdered by Brittney's partner a man named Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has repeatedly received inpatient care for fits of anger.

Obsession and Unfinished Business

The protagonist becomes fixated by the story, and I was intrigued by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards ethical reporting and daring boundary-pushing clash in this segment. However, I would have preferred her to go further into her own obsessions here. The most interesting character is the character Brittney, who comes alive partially because of Catt seeing herself in her – another bright, bullied girl derailing in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus tells us that Catt speaks to Brittney in detention, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The complete segment feels strangely incomplete, to the degree that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par