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The Four Spent the Day Together is populated with characters pursuing fresh starts, struggling to escape drugs or harmful partnerships, only to find hope curdling into conflict. Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "new beginning", transforming it into intentionally weary through constant reiteration. Sentences like "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They opted for a clean break" recur in the story. And yet, Kraus herself is embarking on her own fresh start, since this seems a novel form of writing – observational, genuinely novelistic. But then it turns out to be laden with the same dilemmas and styles as her previous works.

From Accidental Writer to Cult Classic

Kraus started out as an visual artist who entered the literary world somewhat by chance with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, made up of letters to an unreceptive lover, converting intimate women's literature from humiliation into assassination. She persisted as a writer, but the next trio of compelling and abrasive novels did not possess the impact and rawness that the letter form brought to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her identity as a nonconformist creator who had turned into a extensive real estate holder, so there was much discussion on property transactions. It follows that she currently desires to experiment with fresh narrative sources, directing her gaze to external narratives, at a moment when she asserts that Trumpian politics renders personal narrative obsolete.

Three Generations, One Unescapable Past

The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, covering three generations – none able to break free from their histories. We encounter the story of Emma and Jasper, versions of the author's parents, relocating from the Bronx to a pastoral setting. Additionally the narrative of the author, in the guise of protagonist Catt Greene, reckoning with the belated success of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her addict husband her husband Paul. The third thread involves the story of the murder of one directionless individual by another in a locality largely deserted by progressive politics only a brief drive from Catt's rural residence in a remote part of Minnesota.

From my perspective as a reader drawn to refined literature of the sort Kraus herself often avoids, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the first section.

Being a reader who appreciates precise prose of the style that Kraus tends to eschew, I was seduced by the storytelling approach of the first section. There is a novel degree of detail that accommodates minutiae, like the bucket that the protagonist as a child pries out of frozen water at the opening of the book, assisted by her cherished parent. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she declares; "a nice toy", he responds, "the nuanced interpretations of terms tumbling in their mouths like piece candy". She tells Emma's story with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not precisely her dream."

Letdown and Fragmentation

I was fated to feel let down when I expected this different style could continue through the novel. The author states here that she dislikes the satisfaction those who appreciate polished prose have gotten from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disjunction, to the untidy aesthetics she echoes from her inspiration author Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her previous novels comes back in the middle section. The protagonist is attempting to do up three dozen dilapidated units in the city's most challenging districts while shuttling between two different states, failing to help her husband manage his alcohol use. She is overwhelmed as Paul cycles through underfunded jobs as an addiction therapist in a environment propelled by the rage and anxiety that underpins a political win. A significant portion discusses about the protagonist facing cancellation on social media, her professional designation altered from "author" to "landlord" on the online encyclopedia. She still gives the impression to care a little too much about this. In a moment she remarks that she's looking into the killing so that before leaving Minnesota, "she might be able to learn something about an the nation that her social media opponents would fail to comprehend, would overlook entirely".

The Homicide Account

So then we come to the actual killing – and the eponymous day experienced by the victim with the killer and his associates. The author possesses compelling foundational content, and details moment by moment what happened when a man named Brandon came to meet Brittney after connecting via an application where she offered adult photos. He was hoping for sex but appears congenially to have passed the day in the company of her associates, mooching around having his vehicle repaired and funding treats and narcotics, before being murdered by Brittney's partner Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has repeatedly received inpatient care for violent rage.

Fascination and Incompletion

Catt gets obsessed by the story, and I found myself captivated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards responsible documentation and reckless transgression wrestle in this part. Yet I wished her to go further into her personal fixations here. The most interesting character is Brittney herself, who becomes vivid in part due to Catt seeing herself in her – another bright, bullied girl derailing in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus tells us that Catt converses with Brittney in jail, but she fails to enact these dialogues. This entire part feels curiously unresolved, to the degree that her narrative ends almost mid-par