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The Four Spent the Day Together features individuals seeking clean slates, struggling to escape substance abuse or harmful partnerships, only to find hope curdling into aggression. Kraus often employs the phrase "fresh start", making it willfully cynical through its repetitions. Sentences like "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They chose to begin anew" recur in the text. And yet, the author herself seems to be making her personal new beginning, because this presents as a different type of work – observational, authentically narrative. Yet it proves to be filled with the familiar conflicts and aesthetics as earlier books.

From Chance Novelist to Iconic Work

Kraus began as an artist who became a writer almost accidentally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, structured as epistles to an unresponsive love interest, transforming confessional female writing from humiliation into assassination. She persisted as a writer, but the following three compelling and abrasive novels did not possess the shock and immediacy that the correspondence format imparted to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her role as a maverick maker who had become a major property owner, so there was much discussion on real estate deals. It follows that she currently desires to try out different types of content, looking outwards to other people's stories, at a period in which she states that current political era turns intimate literature obsolete.

Several Eras, Shared Inescapable History

The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, covering multiple eras – each trapped by their histories. We encounter the story of Emma and Jasper, based on the author's parents, relocating from the New York borough to a pastoral setting. There is the narrative of the author, in the guise of protagonist Catt Greene, reckoning with the belated success of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction a man named Paul. Finally the story of the murder of one troubled youth by another in a town largely deserted by liberal ideals only a short distance from Catt's cottage in the Minnesota countryside.

As a reader drawn to polished prose of the sort Kraus often avoids, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the initial segment.

Being a reader who appreciates precise prose of the style that Kraus herself often disregards, I was won over by the literary tone of the first section. There is a new quality of attentiveness that accommodates small details, like the bucket that the protagonist as a child dislodges from ice at the beginning of the narrative, helped by her adored dad. "Look, an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a lovely toy", he answers, "the elliptical meanings of words rolling around in their mouths like hard candy". The author narrates the tale of Emma with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not entirely her own."

Letdown and Fragmentation

I was destined to be disappointed when I hoped this fresh tone could continue through the novel. The author states here that she dislikes the pleasure audiences such as myself have taken from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to fragmentation, to the untidy aesthetics she has in common with her hero Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her earlier works returns in the middle section. The protagonist is trying to renovate multiple decrepit residences in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while shuttling between the Midwest and the West Coast, failing to help Paul control his drinking. She is overwhelmed as Paul cycles through underfunded jobs as an addiction therapist in a environment fueled by the hostility and dread that powers Trump's victory. There are several pages about the protagonist facing cancellation on Twitter, her listed profession modified from "writer" to "landlord" on Wikipedia. The author still appears to be overly concerned about this. On one occasion she states that she's investigating the murder so that before leaving Minnesota, "she might be able to learn something about an the United States that her Twitter detractors would fail to comprehend, would overlook entirely".

The Killing Story

Then we reach to the actual killing – and the titular day spent by the deceased with the perpetrator and his associates. The author possesses compelling foundational content, and knows hour by hour what transpired when a man named Brandon came to see Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she marketed explicit images. He sought a sexual encounter but seems amiably to have occupied the day in the company of her associates, loitering having his vehicle repaired 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 aggressive outbursts.

Preoccupation and Open Ends

Catt gets obsessed by the narrative, and I was fascinated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards responsible documentation and audacious rule-breaking tussle in this section. However, I would have preferred her to delve deeper into her personal fixations here. The standout figure is Brittney, who comes alive partially because of Catt seeing herself in her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual going off the rails in a troubled, forgotten town. The author informs us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in detention, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. This entire part feels strangely incomplete, to the extent that her narrative ends almost mid-par