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The Four Spent the Day Together is populated with individuals seeking fresh starts, struggling to escape substance abuse or toxic relationships, only to find hope curdling into violence. The author often employs the phrase "clean slate", transforming it into intentionally weary through its repetitions. Sentences like "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They decided to make a fresh start" appear throughout the narrative. At the same time, Kraus herself seems to be making her own fresh start, as this appears a different type of work – observational, truly literary. However it reveals itself to be filled with the recurring issues and aesthetics as her previous works.

From Chance Novelist to Iconic Work

Chris Kraus began as an creative who transitioned to writing almost accidentally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, which was composed of missives to a distant beloved, elevating personal female narrative from self-debasement into rebellion. She kept producing books, but the three subsequent engaging and challenging novels lacked the impact and rawness that the letter form brought to the tone of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her role as a nonconformist creator who had turned into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was considerable focus on property transactions. It makes sense that she currently desires to try out new kinds of material, looking outwards to the experiences of others, at a moment when she claims that current political era turns intimate literature unnecessary.

Three Generations, Collective Unavoidable Background

The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, spanning multiple eras – each trapped by their pasts. The book includes the story of Emma and Jasper, based on her own mother and father, relocating from the urban environment to the Connecticut countryside. There is the narrative of the author, in the character of protagonist Catt Greene, confronting the late recognition of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction her husband Paul. The third thread involves the account of a killing of one troubled youth by another in a community mostly forsaken by progressive politics only a short distance from Catt's cottage in a remote part of Minnesota.

As a reader attracted to honed writing of the kind the author herself typically rejects, I was enchanted by the literary tone of the first section.

Being a reader who favors crafted language of the variety that Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was won over by the literary tone of the initial part. There is a new quality of attentiveness that allows space for trivial aspects, like the container that the protagonist as a child pries out of frozen water at the start of the story, aided by her cherished parent. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she declares; "a lovely toy", he responds, "the elliptical meanings of words circulating in their speech like sweet treats". She tells Emma's narrative with interest and closeness. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not entirely her own."

Letdown and Fragmentation

I was destined to be disappointed when I hoped this different style could persist to the end. The author states here that she dislikes the enjoyment audiences such as myself have derived from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disruption, to the untidy aesthetics she has in common with her hero writer Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her previous novels returns in the second segment. Catt Greene is trying to renovate multiple decrepit residences in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while shuttling between two different states, unable to aid her husband control his drinking. She feels helpless as Paul transitions between low-resource employment as an addiction therapist in a society propelled by the rage and anxiety that powers an electoral success. A significant portion discusses about the protagonist facing cancellation on a platform, her occupation changed from "novelist" to "property owner" on the online encyclopedia. She still gives the impression to invest excessive emotion about this. On one occasion she remarks that she's researching the homicide so that before departing the state, "she may grasp something about an America that her social media opponents would fail to comprehend, would not even see".

The Murder Narrative

Thus we arrive to the murder itself – and the titular day spent by the deceased with the perpetrator and his associates. Kraus has great source material, and details moment by moment what transpired when Brandon came to visit Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she offered adult photos. He was hoping for sex but appears congenially to have passed the day with her companions, loitering fixing his automobile and covering the cost of food and substances, before being murdered by her romantic interest Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has frequently been hospitalised for violent rage.

Preoccupation and Open Ends

Catt develops an obsession by the account, and I was fascinated by the way that her twin drives towards responsible documentation and daring boundary-pushing tussle in this section. Yet I wished her to go further into her personal fixations here. The most interesting character is Brittney, who comes alive partly through Catt's identification with her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman spiraling out of control in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus tells us that Catt speaks to Brittney in jail, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The complete segment feels curiously unresolved, to the point that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par