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The Four Spent the Day Together features characters pursuing fresh starts, trying to break free from drugs or abusive marriages, only to find hope curdling into conflict. The author repeatedly invokes the phrase "new beginning", rendering it deliberately jaded through constant reiteration. Phrases such as "He aimed to start over" and "They decided to make a fresh start" appear throughout the narrative. At the same time, Kraus herself seems to be making her individual reinvention, since this seems a novel form of writing – observational, authentically narrative. Yet it proves to be laden with the same dilemmas and styles as earlier books.

From Accidental Writer to Cult Classic

The writer was originally an artist who became a writer almost accidentally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, structured as letters to an unreceptive lover, elevating intimate women's literature from humiliation into defiance. She kept producing books, but the following three fascinating and rebarbative novels missed the impact and rawness that the letter form imparted to the voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her position as a maverick maker who had turned into a extensive real estate holder, so there was much discussion on property transactions. It makes sense that she now wants to explore fresh narrative sources, turning outward to the experiences of others, at a time when she states that Trumpian politics turns intimate literature unnecessary.

Three Generations, Collective Unavoidable Background

The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, encompassing several time periods – none able to break free from their pasts. The book includes the tale of Emma and Jasper, versions of Kraus's parents, moving from the New York borough to rural Connecticut. Additionally the narrative of the author, in the guise of protagonist Catt Greene, grappling with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse her husband Paul. Finally the account of a killing of one lost young man by another in a town largely deserted by progressive politics only 80 miles from the protagonist's home in a remote part of Minnesota.

As a reader attracted to polished prose of the kind Kraus tends to eschew, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the first section.

As someone who reads who appreciates honed writing of the variety that Kraus usually avoids, I was captivated by the literary tone of the initial part. It possesses a new quality of attentiveness that accommodates small details, like the pail that the protagonist as a child pries out of frozen water at the beginning of the narrative, aided by her adored dad. "Look, an ice toy!" she says; "a nice toy", he responds, "the elliptical meanings of words circulating in their speech like piece candy". The author narrates Emma's narrative with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not entirely her own."

Letdown and Fragmentation

I was fated to feel let down when I expected this new voice could last out the book. The author states here that she resents the enjoyment those who appreciate polished prose have derived from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to fragmentation, to the messy artistic approach she has in common with her inspiration Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her past books comes back in the central part. Catt Greene is trying to renovate multiple decrepit residences in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while traveling between Minnesota and LA, failing to help her husband curb his addiction. She is overwhelmed as her spouse cycles through poorly supported positions as an addiction therapist in a society driven by the hostility and dread that powers Trump's victory. There are several pages about Catt being cancelled on a platform, her professional designation altered from "writer" to "property owner" on a reference site. Kraus still seems to be overly concerned about this. In a moment she says that she's looking into the killing so that before leaving Minnesota, "she might be able to learn something about an America that her social media opponents would not understand, would overlook entirely".

The Murder Narrative

So then we come to the homicide in question – and the titular day spent by the victim with the perpetrator and his friends. Kraus utilizes great source material, and details moment by moment what happened when the victim Brandon came to visit 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 alongside her friends, mooching around getting his car mended and paying for snacks and drugs, before being murdered by her romantic interest a man named Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has frequently been hospitalised for fits of anger.

Obsession and Unfinished Business

Catt gets obsessed by the narrative, and I found myself captivated by the way that her twin drives towards responsible documentation and daring boundary-pushing wrestle in this part. However, I would have preferred her to go further into her individual preoccupations here. The standout figure is the character Brittney, who becomes vivid partly through the protagonist's connection to her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman derailing in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus tells us that Catt speaks to Brittney in prison, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The complete segment feels oddly unfinished, to the degree that her narrative ends almost mid-par