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The Four Spent the Day Together centers on individuals pursuing new beginnings, trying to break free from drugs or harmful partnerships, only to find hope curdling into conflict. Kraus frequently uses the phrase "new beginning", making it intentionally weary through constant reiteration. Sentences like "He could make a fresh start" and "They decided to make a fresh start" recur in the text. And yet, the author herself appears to be undertaking her personal new beginning, as this seems a different type of work – fact-based, authentically narrative. Yet it turns out to be filled with the recurring issues and styles as her previous works.

From Accidental Writer to Cult Classic

Kraus began as an artist who became a writer almost accidentally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, which was composed of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, transforming intimate women's literature from abjection into assassination. She continued writing, but the following three compelling and abrasive novels lacked the impact and rawness that the letter form brought to the tone of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her position as a renegade artist who had evolved into a extensive real estate holder, so there was much discussion on housing investments. It follows that she now wants to try out new kinds of material, directing her gaze to other people's stories, at a period in which she asserts that current political era makes confessional writing obsolete.

Three Generations, Collective Unavoidable Background

The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, encompassing several time periods – each trapped by their pasts. There is the tale of a couple named Emma and Jasper, based on the author's parents, relocating from the New York borough to the Connecticut countryside. There is the account of Kraus, in the persona of a figure named Catt Greene, grappling with the belated success of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her addict husband a man named Paul. The third thread involves the story of the murder of one troubled youth by another in a locality largely deserted by forward-thinking policies only a short distance from Catt's cottage in rural Minnesota.

For this reader fond of polished prose of the sort the author herself tends to eschew, I was captivated by the narrative style of the opening part.

As a reader who favors precise prose of the variety that the author usually avoids, I was won over by the novelistic voice of the initial part. It possesses a fresh level of observation that allows space for trivial aspects, like the container that the youthful Catt frees from the ice at the start of the story, aided by her adored dad. "Look, an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a nice toy", he replies, "the ambiguous meanings of language circulating in their speech like piece candy". The author narrates Emma's story with inquiry and familiarity. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not hers, exactly."

Disappointment and Disjunction

I was destined to be disappointed when I hoped this fresh tone could last out the book. Kraus says here that she dislikes the pleasure audiences such as myself have taken from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disruption, to the messy artistic approach she shares with her hero author Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her previous novels comes back in the middle section. Catt Greene is working on refurbishing multiple decrepit residences in the city's most challenging districts while moving between Minnesota and LA, unable to aid Paul manage his alcohol use. She feels helpless as her spouse moves between low-resource employment as an substance abuse counselor in a society fueled by the rage and anxiety that underpins Trump's victory. There are several pages about the protagonist facing cancellation on social media, her professional designation altered from "writer" to "landlord" on Wikipedia. The author still appears to invest excessive emotion about this. At one point she remarks that she's investigating the murder so that before leaving Minnesota, "she could potentially understand something about an America that her social media opponents would be unable to grasp, would not even perceive".

The Homicide Account

So then we come to the murder itself – and the eponymous day experienced by the deceased with the perpetrator and his friends. Kraus has compelling foundational content, and knows hour by hour what occurred as the victim Brandon came to see Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she marketed explicit images. He was hoping for sex but seems affably to have spent the day alongside her friends, mooching around having his vehicle repaired and funding treats and narcotics, before being shot by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has often been institutionalized for fits of anger.

Obsession and Unfinished Business

Catt develops an obsession by the account, 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 explore more thoroughly her individual preoccupations here. The compelling persona is the character Brittney, who comes alive partially because of Catt seeing herself in her – another bright, bullied girl spiraling out of control in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus notes that Catt speaks to Brittney in detention, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The whole section feels oddly unfinished, to the degree that her narrative ends almost mid-par