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The Four Spent the Day Together centers on protagonists pursuing fresh starts, struggling to escape drugs or abusive marriages, only to find hope curdling into violence. Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "clean slate", rendering it intentionally weary through constant reiteration. Examples include "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They chose to begin anew" recur in the story. And yet, Kraus herself seems to be making her individual reinvention, as this appears a different type of work – fact-based, truly literary. Yet it reveals itself to be packed with the recurring issues and aesthetics as earlier books.

From Accidental Writer to Cult Classic

Chris Kraus started out as an creative who became a writer somewhat by chance with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, which was composed of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, elevating personal female narrative from self-debasement into defiance. She continued writing, but the following three engaging and challenging novels lacked the impact and rawness that the correspondence format infused into the narrative voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her identity as a nonconformist creator who had evolved into a major property owner, so there was considerable focus on property transactions. It follows that she presently aims to try out different types of content, directing her gaze to external narratives, at a time when she states that contemporary political climate turns intimate literature obsolete.

Several Eras, Shared Inescapable History

The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, covering multiple eras – all unable to escape their pasts. The book includes the story of Emma and Jasper, versions of Kraus's parents, moving from the urban environment to rural Connecticut. There is the story of Kraus herself, in the guise of Catt Greene, grappling with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her addict husband Paul. Finally the narrative of a homicide of one lost young man by another in a town largely deserted by forward-thinking policies only a short distance from Catt's rural residence in a remote part of Minnesota.

For this reader drawn to refined literature of the kind the author herself often avoids, I was enchanted by the narrative style of the initial segment.

As someone who reads who favors precise prose of the kind that Kraus usually avoids, I was won over by the novelistic voice of the initial part. It possesses a new quality of attentiveness that accommodates minutiae, like the pail that the youthful Catt frees from the ice at the start of the story, assisted by her adored dad. "Look, an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a great plaything", he responds, "the nuanced interpretations of terms circulating in their speech like hard candy". She tells the tale of Emma with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not precisely her dream."

Frustration and Disruption

I was bound to become frustrated when I expected this new voice could continue through the novel. Kraus says here that she resents the pleasure those who appreciate polished prose have gotten from I Love Dick; she's devoted to fragmentation, to the unpolished style she echoes from her hero Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her earlier works returns in the second segment. Catt is trying to renovate 36 run-down apartments in the city's most challenging districts while moving between Minnesota and LA, unable to aid her husband manage his alcohol use. She feels helpless as Paul cycles through underfunded jobs as an recovery specialist in a world propelled by the anger and fear that underpins a political win. Multiple pages are devoted about the protagonist facing cancellation on a platform, her listed profession modified from "writer" to "real estate holder" on Wikipedia. The author still appears to be overly concerned about this. At one point she says that she's investigating the murder so that before departing the state, "she could potentially understand something about an America that her social media opponents would not understand, would overlook entirely".

The Homicide Account

So then we come to the murder itself – and the referenced day experienced by the victim with the murderer and his friends. Kraus utilizes great source material, and details moment by moment what happened when Brandon came to meet Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she marketed explicit images. He was hoping for sex but appears congenially to have passed the day in the company of her associates, loitering getting his car mended and covering the cost of food and substances, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's partner Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has repeatedly received inpatient care for violent rage.

Obsession and Unfinished Business

The protagonist becomes fixated by the account, and I was intrigued by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards responsible documentation and reckless transgression clash in this segment. However, I would have preferred her to go further into her personal fixations here. The most interesting character is Brittney herself, who comes alive in part due to Catt seeing herself in her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman going off the rails in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus tells us that Catt speaks to Brittney in prison, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The whole section feels oddly unfinished, to the point that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par