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The Four Spent the Day Together centers on characters seeking new beginnings, attempting to leave behind drugs or toxic relationships, only to see hope turn into violence. Chris Kraus frequently uses the phrase "clean slate", rendering it intentionally weary through constant reiteration. Sentences like "He aimed to start over" and "They decided to make a fresh start" recur in the narrative. Meanwhile, she seems to be making her individual reinvention, since this presents as a novel form of writing – documentarian, authentically narrative. But then it reveals itself to be laden with the same dilemmas and approaches as past novels.

From Accidental Writer to Renowned Book

The writer was originally an creative who entered the literary world somewhat by chance with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, which was composed of letters to an unreceptive lover, elevating personal female narrative from abjection into defiance. She persisted as a writer, but the three subsequent engaging and challenging novels lacked the power and directness that the letter form imparted to the tone of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her identity as a renegade artist who had turned into a extensive real estate holder, so there was significant attention on real estate deals. It makes sense that she currently desires to experiment with different types of content, turning outward to other people's stories, at a period in which she states that contemporary political climate renders personal narrative obsolete.

Several Eras, Shared Inescapable History

The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, spanning three generations – all unable to escape their pasts. The book includes the tale of a couple named Emma and Jasper, based on Kraus's parents, transitioning from the Bronx to rural Connecticut. There is the narrative of the author, in the persona of a figure named Catt Greene, reckoning with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse her husband Paul. The third thread involves the account of a killing of one troubled youth by another in a town mostly forsaken by progressive politics only a short distance from the protagonist's home in a remote part of Minnesota.

As a reader attracted to polished prose of the sort Kraus herself typically rejects, I was captivated by the literary tone of the opening part.

Being a reader who favors honed writing of the kind that the author tends to eschew, I was captivated by the literary tone of the opening segment. There is a new quality of attentiveness that allows space for small details, like the bucket that the young Catt frees from the ice at the opening of the book, aided by her beloved father. "Look, an ice toy!" she declares; "a great plaything", he answers, "the elliptical meanings of words circulating in their speech like hard candy". The author narrates Emma's narrative with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not hers, exactly."

Disappointment and Disjunction

I was destined to be disappointed when I wished this different style could continue through the novel. Kraus says here that she resents the enjoyment those who appreciate polished prose have taken from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disjunction, to the messy artistic approach she has in common with her idol writer Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her past books comes back in the second segment. The protagonist is attempting to do up 36 run-down apartments in the city's most challenging districts while shuttling between Minnesota and LA, unsuccessful in assisting her husband control his drinking. She feels helpless as Paul cycles through low-resource employment as an addiction therapist in a society propelled by the anger and fear that drives a political win. There are several pages about Catt being cancelled on Twitter, her listed profession modified from "novelist" to "property owner" on Wikipedia. The author still appears to be overly concerned about this. In a moment she remarks that she's investigating the murder so that before exiting the region, "she could potentially understand something about an the United States that her social media opponents would fail to comprehend, would not even see".

The Homicide Account

Thus we arrive to the murder itself – and the titular day experienced by the deceased with the killer and his associates. Kraus utilizes great source material, and knows hour by hour what occurred as Brandon came to meet Brittney after meeting her on an app where she offered adult photos. He anticipated intimacy but appears congenially to have passed the day with her companions, wandering about having his vehicle repaired and funding treats and narcotics, before being murdered by Brittney's partner a man named Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has repeatedly received inpatient care for violent rage.

Preoccupation and Open Ends

Catt gets obsessed by the story, and I was fascinated by the way that her twin drives towards ethical reporting and daring boundary-pushing clash in this segment. However, I would have preferred her to delve deeper into her personal fixations here. The standout figure is the character Brittney, who comes alive in part due to Catt's identification with her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman going off the rails in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus notes that Catt speaks to Brittney in jail, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. This entire part feels strangely incomplete, to the extent that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par