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The Four Spent the Day Together is populated with individuals seeking fresh starts, struggling to escape drugs or harmful partnerships, only to witness hope devolve into conflict. Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "new beginning", making it intentionally weary through recurring use. Examples include "He could make a fresh start" and "They decided to make a fresh start" recur in the narrative. At the same time, Kraus herself appears to be undertaking her individual reinvention, since this appears a novel form of writing – documentarian, truly literary. However it reveals itself to be laden with the recurring issues and styles as her previous works.

From Chance Novelist to Renowned Book

Kraus began as an visual artist who entered the literary world unintentionally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, structured as letters to an unreceptive lover, elevating intimate women's literature from self-debasement into defiance. She continued writing, but the following three fascinating and rebarbative novels missed the power and directness that the letter form brought to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her identity as a nonconformist creator who had evolved into a extensive real estate holder, so there was significant attention on property transactions. It follows that she presently aims to experiment with new kinds of material, directing her gaze to external narratives, at a time when she asserts that contemporary political climate renders personal narrative unnecessary.

Multiple Generations, Shared Inescapable History

The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, spanning multiple eras – all unable to escape their histories. There is the story of a couple named Emma and Jasper, representations of her own mother and father, moving from the urban environment to rural Connecticut. There is the account of Kraus, in the persona of protagonist Catt Greene, grappling with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse Paul. The third thread involves the narrative of a homicide of one lost young man by another in a community mostly forsaken by forward-thinking policies only a short distance from Catt's rural residence in a remote part of Minnesota.

For this reader drawn to honed writing of the sort Kraus often avoids, I was seduced by the narrative style of the first section.

Being a reader who favors crafted language of the style that Kraus herself usually avoids, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the initial part. There is a novel degree of detail that accommodates minutiae, like the pail that the young Catt dislodges from ice at the beginning of the narrative, helped by her adored dad. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she says; "a lovely toy", he responds, "the nuanced interpretations of terms tumbling in their mouths like hard candy". Kraus writes Emma's narrative with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not hers, exactly."

Disappointment and Disjunction

I was bound to become frustrated when I hoped this different style could continue through the novel. Kraus says here that she is annoyed by the pleasure audiences such as myself have taken from I Love Dick; she's committed to disjunction, to the untidy aesthetics she has in common with her hero author Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her previous novels returns in the central part. The protagonist is attempting to do up three dozen dilapidated units in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while shuttling between two different states, unsuccessful in assisting her husband manage his alcohol use. She feels helpless as her spouse moves between underfunded jobs as an recovery specialist in a society driven by the rage and anxiety that underpins a political win. There are several pages about the protagonist facing cancellation on a platform, her professional designation altered from "writer" to "property owner" on the online encyclopedia. Kraus still seems to be overly concerned about this. In a moment she states that she's investigating the murder so that before exiting the region, "she could potentially understand something about an America that her Twitter detractors would not understand, would overlook entirely".

The Killing Story

So then we come to the murder itself – and the titular day experienced by the deceased with the perpetrator and his companions. Kraus utilizes great source material, and reconstructs step by step what transpired when Brandon came to meet Brittney after meeting her on an app where she sold sex pictures. He sought a sexual encounter but seems affably to have spent the day alongside her friends, loitering getting his car mended and paying for snacks and drugs, before being killed by gunfire by her romantic interest Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has often been institutionalized for aggressive outbursts.

Preoccupation and Open Ends

Catt gets obsessed by the narrative, and I was fascinated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards accurate chronicling and reckless transgression tussle in this section. However, I would have preferred her to explore more thoroughly her individual preoccupations here. The standout figure is the character Brittney, who comes alive partly through Catt seeing herself in her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman derailing in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus tells us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in detention, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The complete segment feels oddly unfinished, to the degree that her narrative ends almost mid-par