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The Four Spent the Day Together centers on individuals pursuing new beginnings, trying to break free from substance abuse or abusive marriages, only to find hope curdling into violence. Kraus frequently uses the phrase "fresh start", making it willfully cynical through constant reiteration. Phrases such as "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They decided to make a fresh start" recur in the story. Meanwhile, the author herself appears to be undertaking her own fresh start, as this seems a different type of work – documentarian, authentically narrative. Yet it turns out to be packed with the familiar conflicts and approaches as past novels.

From Accidental Writer to Iconic Work

Kraus began as an creative who transitioned to writing unintentionally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, which was composed of letters to an unreceptive lover, transforming confessional female writing from abjection into rebellion. She kept producing books, but the three subsequent engaging and challenging novels did not possess the power and directness that the epistolary style brought to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her role as a maverick maker who had evolved into a extensive real estate holder, so there was significant attention on real estate deals. It follows that she currently desires to experiment with new kinds of material, turning outward to the experiences of others, at a period in which she states that contemporary political climate turns intimate literature obsolete.

Multiple Generations, One Unescapable Past

The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, encompassing three generations – none able to break free from their histories. We encounter the story of a couple named Emma and Jasper, versions of Kraus's parents, relocating from the urban environment to rural Connecticut. There is the narrative of the author, in the character of Catt Greene, reckoning with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse her husband Paul. The third thread involves the story of the murder of one directionless individual by another in a town mostly forsaken by progressive politics only a brief drive from Catt's rural residence in rural Minnesota.

From my perspective as a reader attracted to honed writing of the type the author herself tends to eschew, I was enchanted by the novelistic voice of the initial segment.

As a reader who favors honed writing of the style that Kraus tends to eschew, I was captivated by the storytelling approach of the opening segment. It possesses a novel degree of detail that accommodates small details, like the container that the young Catt frees from the ice at the beginning of the narrative, assisted by her cherished parent. "Look, an ice toy!" she declares; "a great plaything", he answers, "the ambiguous meanings of language circulating in their speech like hard candy". The author narrates the tale of Emma with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not precisely her dream."

Frustration and Disruption

I was bound to become frustrated when I wished this new voice could continue through the novel. Kraus notes here that she dislikes the pleasure those who appreciate polished prose have derived from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disruption, to the untidy aesthetics she echoes from her inspiration writer Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her previous novels reasserts itself in the central part. Catt is trying to renovate multiple decrepit residences in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while moving between two different states, unsuccessful in assisting her husband curb his addiction. She is overwhelmed as Paul moves between low-resource employment as an recovery specialist in a society fueled by the anger and fear that underpins a political win. A significant portion discusses about Catt's social media ostracism on a platform, her occupation changed from "author" to "real estate holder" on the online encyclopedia. The author still appears to invest excessive emotion about this. On one occasion she states that she's looking into the killing so that before leaving Minnesota, "she may grasp something about an the United States that her social media opponents would fail to comprehend, would overlook entirely".

The Killing Story

So then we come to the murder itself – and the eponymous day experienced by the victim with the murderer and his friends. Kraus has compelling foundational content, and details moment by moment what transpired when a man named Brandon came to visit Brittney after meeting her on an app where she sold sex pictures. He sought a sexual encounter but seems amiably to have occupied the day in the company of her associates, wandering about having his vehicle repaired and funding treats and narcotics, before being shot by Brittney's partner Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has frequently been hospitalised for violent rage.

Preoccupation and Open Ends

Catt gets obsessed by the narrative, and I was fascinated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards responsible documentation and audacious rule-breaking wrestle in this part. However, I would have preferred her to explore more thoroughly her individual preoccupations here. The most interesting character is the character Brittney, who becomes vivid partly through Catt's identification with her – another bright, bullied girl going off the rails in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus notes that Catt converses with Brittney in detention, but she fails to enact these dialogues. This entire part feels oddly unfinished, to the extent that her narrative ends almost mid-par