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The Four Spent the Day Together is populated with protagonists chasing after new beginnings, attempting to leave behind substance abuse or toxic relationships, only to find hope curdling into conflict. Kraus frequently uses the phrase "clean slate", rendering it deliberately jaded through constant reiteration. Phrases such as "He could make a fresh start" and "They decided to make a fresh start" are scattered across the story. And yet, Kraus herself is embarking on her own fresh start, because this seems a different type of work – observational, truly literary. However it reveals itself to be filled with the recurring issues and approaches as past novels.

From Chance Novelist to Iconic Work

Kraus began as an visual artist who became a writer unintentionally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, which was composed of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, converting confessional female writing from humiliation into defiance. She kept producing books, but the three subsequent compelling and abrasive novels lacked the power and directness that the correspondence format imparted to the voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her identity as a renegade artist who had evolved into a major property owner, so there was much discussion on housing investments. It makes sense that she now wants to explore fresh narrative sources, looking outwards to other people's stories, at a period in which she claims that contemporary political climate makes confessional writing unnecessary.

Multiple Generations, Collective Unavoidable Background

The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, encompassing three generations – each trapped by their pasts. We encounter the story of characters Emma and Jasper, representations of the author's parents, relocating from the urban environment to the Connecticut countryside. There is the narrative of the author, in the character of protagonist Catt Greene, grappling with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction her husband Paul. Finally the story of the murder of one lost young man by another in a locality largely deserted by liberal ideals only a brief drive from Catt's rural residence in the Minnesota countryside.

As a reader attracted to refined literature of the kind the author herself often avoids, I was seduced by the narrative style of the first section.

Being a reader who appreciates crafted language of the variety that Kraus tends to eschew, I was won over by the novelistic voice of the first section. There is a novel degree of detail that accommodates minutiae, like the pail that the youthful Catt dislodges from ice at the start of the story, assisted by her adored dad. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she declares; "a lovely toy", he replies, "the ambiguous meanings of language circulating in their speech like sweet treats". Kraus writes Emma's story with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not precisely her dream."

Frustration and Disruption

I was destined to be disappointed when I hoped this fresh tone could continue through the novel. Kraus notes here that she resents the enjoyment audiences such as myself have derived from I Love Dick; she's devoted to fragmentation, to the unpolished style she echoes from her inspiration Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her earlier works reasserts itself in the second segment. Catt Greene is working on refurbishing 36 run-down apartments in the city's most challenging districts while traveling between Minnesota and LA, failing to help Paul manage his alcohol use. She experiences powerlessness as Paul cycles through poorly supported positions as an substance abuse counselor in a world driven by the hostility and dread that powers a political win. A significant portion discusses about Catt's social media ostracism on a platform, her listed profession modified from "writer" to "real estate holder" on the online encyclopedia. The author still appears to care a little too much about this. On one occasion she states that she's researching the homicide so that before departing the state, "she might be able to learn something about an the United States that her online critics would be unable to grasp, would not even perceive".

The Homicide Account

Then we reach to the actual killing – and the referenced day spent by the deceased with the killer and his associates. Kraus utilizes excellent raw material, and details moment by moment what transpired when Brandon came to see Brittney after connecting via an application where she offered adult photos. He sought a sexual encounter but seems amiably to have occupied the day with her companions, mooching around having his vehicle repaired and covering the cost of food and substances, before being shot by her romantic interest Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has frequently been hospitalised for fits of anger.

Fascination and Incompletion

Catt gets obsessed by the narrative, and I found myself captivated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards ethical reporting and daring boundary-pushing wrestle in this part. Yet I wished her to delve deeper into her individual preoccupations here. The most interesting character is Brittney herself, who gains dimension in part due to the protagonist's connection to her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual spiraling out of control in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus tells us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in detention, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. This entire part feels oddly unfinished, to the degree that her narrative ends almost mid-par