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The Four Spent the Day Together features protagonists seeking fresh starts, struggling to escape drugs or abusive marriages, only to find hope curdling into conflict. The author often employs the phrase "new beginning", making it willfully cynical through constant reiteration. Phrases such as "He aimed to start over" and "They decided to make a fresh start" are scattered across the story. And yet, she appears to be undertaking her individual reinvention, as this presents as a novel form of writing – fact-based, genuinely novelistic. But then it reveals itself to be packed with the same dilemmas and aesthetics as earlier books.

From Accidental Writer to Cult Classic

Kraus began as an visual artist who transitioned to writing somewhat by chance with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, made up of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, transforming intimate women's literature from abjection into defiance. She continued writing, but the next trio of fascinating and rebarbative novels did not possess the impact and rawness that the letter form brought to the tone of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her identity as a maverick maker who had turned into a major property owner, so there was considerable focus on property transactions. It is logical that she now wants to experiment with fresh narrative sources, looking outwards to other people's stories, at a moment when she states that current political era renders personal narrative redundant.

Multiple Generations, Collective Unavoidable Background

The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, covering three generations – all unable to escape their pasts. We encounter the narrative about a couple named Emma and Jasper, based on the author's parents, moving from the urban environment to a pastoral setting. Then there is the story of Kraus herself, in the guise of protagonist Catt Greene, confronting the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse Paul. And there is the narrative of a homicide of one directionless individual by another in a community mostly forsaken by liberal ideals only a short distance from Catt's rural residence in the Minnesota countryside.

For this reader fond of polished prose of the sort Kraus herself typically rejects, I was enchanted by the literary tone of the opening part.

As someone who reads who favors honed writing of the variety that Kraus herself usually avoids, I was captivated by the literary tone of the initial part. It exhibits a new quality of attentiveness that allows space for minutiae, like the pail that the protagonist as a child pries out of frozen water at the opening of the book, aided by her adored dad. "I found an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a nice toy", he replies, "the nuanced interpretations of terms tumbling in their mouths like sweet treats". The author narrates Emma's story with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not hers, exactly."

Disappointment and Disjunction

I was destined to be disappointed when I expected this different style could continue through the novel. The author states here that she is annoyed by the enjoyment readers like me have taken from I Love Dick; she's devoted to fragmentation, to the messy artistic approach she echoes from her hero author Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her previous novels returns in the central part. The protagonist is attempting to do up multiple decrepit residences in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while shuttling between two different states, unable to aid Paul manage his alcohol use. She feels helpless as Paul moves between poorly supported positions as an recovery specialist in a environment fueled by the rage and anxiety that powers an electoral success. There are several pages about Catt's social media ostracism on social media, her listed profession modified from "novelist" to "landlord" on a reference site. Kraus still seems to care a little too much about this. On one occasion she states that she's investigating the murder so that before departing the state, "she might be able to learn something about an the United States that her Twitter detractors would not understand, would not even see".

The Homicide Account

Then we reach to the murder itself – and the titular day spent by the murdered individual with the perpetrator and his companions. Kraus has compelling foundational content, and details moment by moment what happened when Brandon came to see Brittney after connecting via an application where she sold sex pictures. He anticipated intimacy but seems affably to have spent the day alongside her friends, loitering getting his car mended and covering the cost of food and substances, before being shot by Brittney's partner Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has repeatedly received inpatient care for fits of anger.

Preoccupation and Open Ends

Catt gets obsessed by the story, and I found myself captivated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards accurate chronicling and audacious rule-breaking clash in this segment. Yet I wished her to delve deeper into her own obsessions here. The most interesting character is the character Brittney, who comes alive partly through the protagonist's connection to her – another bright, bullied girl derailing in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus notes that Catt converses with Brittney in jail, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. This entire part feels curiously unresolved, to the point that her narrative ends almost mid-par