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The Four Spent the Day Together centers on individuals chasing after clean slates, struggling to escape drugs or harmful partnerships, only to witness hope devolve into conflict. Kraus frequently uses the phrase "clean slate", transforming it into willfully cynical through constant reiteration. Examples include "He could make a fresh start" and "They chose to begin anew" are scattered across the story. Meanwhile, the author herself appears to be undertaking her own fresh start, as this presents as a novel form of writing – documentarian, genuinely novelistic. Yet it proves to be filled with the recurring issues and aesthetics as earlier books.

From Unplanned Author to Iconic Work

Chris Kraus began as an creative who became a writer unintentionally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, which was composed of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, elevating personal female narrative from abjection into rebellion. She continued writing, but the following three compelling and abrasive novels lacked the impact and rawness that the epistolary style imparted to the narrative 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 much discussion on real estate deals. It is logical that she presently aims to experiment with different types of content, turning outward to the experiences of others, at a time when she states that Trumpian politics renders personal narrative unnecessary.

Multiple Generations, Collective Unavoidable Background

The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, encompassing several time periods – all unable to escape their histories. The book includes the tale of Emma and Jasper, based on her own mother and father, transitioning from the urban environment to a pastoral setting. Then there is the account of Kraus, in the character of protagonist Catt Greene, confronting the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse a man named Paul. Finally the narrative of a homicide of one lost young man by another in a town mostly forsaken by liberal ideals only a brief drive from the protagonist's home in rural Minnesota.

From my perspective as a reader fond of honed writing of the type the author herself often avoids, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the first section.

As someone who reads who appreciates precise prose of the variety that Kraus often disregards, I was won over by the novelistic voice of the initial part. There is a novel degree of detail that allows space for trivial aspects, like the bucket that the young Catt pries out of frozen water at the opening of the book, helped by her beloved father. "I found an ice toy!" she declares; "a lovely toy", he replies, "the ambiguous meanings of language circulating in their speech like piece candy". The author narrates Emma's narrative with curiosity and intimacy. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not entirely her own."

Frustration and Disruption

I was bound to become frustrated when I expected this different style could persist to the end. The author states here that she resents the pleasure those who appreciate polished prose have derived from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disjunction, to the messy artistic approach she has in common with her hero writer Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her earlier works returns in the central part. Catt is attempting to do up 36 run-down apartments in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while moving between two different states, unable to aid Paul curb his addiction. She experiences powerlessness as her spouse transitions between underfunded jobs as an recovery specialist in a environment propelled by the hostility and dread that underpins an electoral success. A significant portion discusses about Catt's social media ostracism on Twitter, her occupation changed from "writer" to "property owner" on the online encyclopedia. She still gives the impression to care a little too much about this. On one occasion she remarks that she's researching the homicide so that before departing the state, "she could potentially understand something about an the United States that her Twitter detractors would not understand, would not even see".

The Murder Narrative

Thus we arrive to the homicide in question – and the eponymous day spent by the victim with the killer and his friends. Kraus utilizes great source material, and knows hour by hour what occurred as Brandon came to meet Brittney after connecting via an application where she offered adult photos. He anticipated intimacy but appears congenially to have passed the day with her companions, loitering getting his car mended and funding treats and narcotics, before being murdered by Brittney's partner a man named Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has repeatedly received inpatient care for violent rage.

Preoccupation and Open Ends

The protagonist becomes fixated by the account, and I was fascinated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards ethical reporting and reckless transgression clash in this segment. Yet I wished her to go further into her own obsessions here. The most interesting character is the character Brittney, who comes alive partly through Catt's identification with her – another bright, bullied girl derailing in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus notes that Catt converses with Brittney in prison, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The whole section feels curiously unresolved, to the degree that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par