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The Four Spent the Day Together centers on protagonists seeking new beginnings, attempting to leave behind drugs or toxic relationships, only to find hope curdling into conflict. The author repeatedly invokes the phrase "clean slate", making it intentionally weary through its repetitions. Sentences like "He could make a fresh start" and "They opted for a clean break" are scattered across the text. At the same time, she seems to be making her own fresh start, as this appears a novel form of writing – observational, truly literary. Yet it reveals itself to be packed with the same dilemmas and approaches as past novels.

From Chance Novelist to Renowned Book

The writer was originally an visual artist who transitioned to writing almost accidentally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, structured as missives to a distant beloved, converting confessional female writing from self-debasement into defiance. She continued writing, but the next trio of engaging and challenging novels lacked the power and directness that the correspondence format infused into the voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her role as a maverick maker who had turned into a extensive real estate holder, so there was much discussion on property transactions. It is logical that she now wants to explore fresh narrative sources, looking outwards to other people's stories, at a moment when she asserts that current political era turns intimate literature redundant.

Three Generations, Shared Inescapable History

The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, encompassing three generations – none able to break free from their histories. The book includes the tale of characters Emma and Jasper, based on her own mother and father, moving from the New York borough to a pastoral setting. There is the story of Kraus herself, in the character of protagonist Catt Greene, reckoning with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction a man named Paul. Finally the story of the murder of one directionless individual by another in a town mostly forsaken by progressive politics only a short distance from Catt's cottage in a remote part of Minnesota.

From my perspective as a reader drawn to honed writing of the type Kraus herself typically rejects, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the initial segment.

Being a reader drawn to precise prose of the kind that Kraus herself often disregards, I was seduced by the literary tone of the opening segment. It possesses a novel degree of detail that allows space for trivial aspects, like the pail that the youthful Catt pries out of frozen water at the start of the story, aided by her beloved father. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she exclaims; "a lovely toy", he replies, "the nuanced interpretations of terms tumbling in their mouths like piece candy". The author narrates Emma's narrative with inquiry and familiarity. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not hers, exactly."

Letdown and Fragmentation

I was destined to be disappointed when I wished this new voice could last out the book. The author states here that she dislikes the enjoyment readers like me have taken from I Love Dick; she's committed to disruption, to the untidy aesthetics she has in common with her inspiration writer Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her previous novels returns in the second segment. The protagonist is attempting to do up 36 run-down apartments in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while traveling between Minnesota and LA, unable to aid Paul curb his addiction. She is overwhelmed as Paul cycles through low-resource employment as an recovery specialist in a environment driven by the anger and fear that underpins a political win. There are several pages about Catt being cancelled on a platform, her occupation changed from "writer" to "property owner" on the online encyclopedia. She still gives the impression to be overly concerned about this. At one point she says that she's researching the homicide so that before exiting the region, "she could potentially understand something about an the United States that her Twitter detractors would be unable to grasp, would overlook entirely".

The Killing Story

So then we come to the actual killing – and the eponymous day passed by the victim with the killer and his companions. Kraus has excellent raw material, and reconstructs step by step what transpired when the victim Brandon came to visit Brittney after meeting her on an app where she sold sex pictures. He anticipated intimacy but seems affably to have spent the day alongside her friends, loitering fixing his automobile and paying for snacks and drugs, before being shot by her romantic interest Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has often been institutionalized for aggressive outbursts.

Fascination and Incompletion

Catt gets obsessed by the story, and I was intrigued by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards responsible documentation and daring boundary-pushing wrestle in this part. Yet I wished her to explore more thoroughly her own obsessions here. The standout figure is the character Brittney, who comes alive in part due to Catt seeing herself in her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman derailing in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus notes that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in prison, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The complete segment feels strangely incomplete, to the degree that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par