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The Four Spent the Day Together is populated with individuals chasing after new beginnings, trying to break free from drugs or abusive marriages, only to find hope curdling into violence. Chris Kraus frequently uses the phrase "clean slate", transforming it into willfully cynical through its repetitions. Sentences like "He aimed to start over" and "They decided to make a fresh start" are scattered across the text. At the same time, Kraus herself is embarking on her personal new beginning, because this seems a novel form of writing – fact-based, genuinely novelistic. However it proves to be packed with the recurring issues and styles as past novels.

From Unplanned Author to Cult Classic

The writer was originally an artist who became a writer unintentionally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, which was composed of missives to a distant beloved, transforming intimate women's literature from humiliation into assassination. She continued writing, but the three subsequent compelling and abrasive novels lacked the impact and rawness that the correspondence format infused into the voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her position as a maverick maker who had evolved into a major property owner, so there was significant attention on housing investments. It follows that she presently aims to try out new kinds of material, turning outward to the experiences of others, at a moment when she states that current political era renders personal narrative unnecessary.

Multiple Generations, One Unescapable Past

The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, covering multiple eras – all unable to escape their pasts. There is the story of a couple named Emma and Jasper, representations of the author's parents, moving from the New York borough to rural Connecticut. There is the account of Kraus, in the character of protagonist Catt Greene, reckoning with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the rise 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 long abandoned by forward-thinking policies only a brief drive from Catt's cottage in rural Minnesota.

From my perspective as a reader drawn to polished prose of the type the author herself tends to eschew, I was seduced by the literary tone of the first section.

As a reader drawn to crafted language of the style that Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the initial part. There is a novel degree of detail that accommodates trivial aspects, like the container that the young Catt dislodges from ice at the beginning of the narrative, helped by her cherished parent. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" 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 interest and closeness. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not precisely her dream."

Letdown and Fragmentation

I was destined to be disappointed when I expected this fresh tone could persist to the end. The author states here that she dislikes the satisfaction readers like me have derived from I Love Dick; she's devoted to fragmentation, to the messy artistic approach she has in common with her hero Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her earlier works returns in the middle section. Catt is working on refurbishing three dozen dilapidated units in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while shuttling between Minnesota and LA, failing to help her husband curb his addiction. She feels helpless as Paul moves between poorly supported positions as an substance abuse counselor in a society fueled by the rage and anxiety that drives Trump's victory. Multiple pages are devoted about the protagonist facing cancellation on social media, her occupation changed from "writer" to "landlord" on a reference site. She still gives the impression to care a little too much about this. In a moment she remarks that she's investigating the murder so that before departing the state, "she may grasp something about an America that her Twitter detractors would be unable to grasp, would overlook entirely".

The Homicide Account

Then we reach to the homicide in question – and the referenced day spent by the victim with the murderer and his associates. The author possesses excellent raw material, and reconstructs step by step what transpired when the victim Brandon came to visit Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she sold sex pictures. He sought a sexual encounter but appears congenially to have passed the day alongside her friends, wandering about having his vehicle repaired and funding treats and narcotics, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's partner Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has often been institutionalized for aggressive outbursts.

Preoccupation and Open Ends

The protagonist becomes fixated by the account, and I found myself captivated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards ethical reporting and reckless transgression tussle in this section. But I'd have liked her to delve deeper into her own obsessions here. The most interesting character 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 tells us that Catt speaks to Brittney in prison, but she fails to enact these dialogues. This entire part feels oddly unfinished, to the degree that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par