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The Four Spent the Day Together is populated with protagonists seeking new beginnings, trying to break free from substance abuse or toxic relationships, only to find hope curdling into conflict. The author repeatedly invokes the phrase "new beginning", rendering it deliberately jaded through its repetitions. Examples include "He aimed to start over" and "They chose to begin anew" recur in the text. And yet, Kraus herself appears to be undertaking her own fresh start, as this appears a new kind of book – fact-based, genuinely novelistic. But then it reveals itself to be filled with the same dilemmas and aesthetics as earlier books.

From Chance Novelist to Iconic Work

The writer was originally an visual artist who transitioned to writing unintentionally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, which was composed of missives to a distant beloved, transforming intimate women's literature from self-debasement into rebellion. She kept producing books, but the next trio of compelling and abrasive novels did not possess the shock and immediacy that the letter form brought to the voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her role as a maverick maker who had turned into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was considerable focus on property transactions. It is logical that she currently desires to experiment with fresh narrative sources, turning outward to the experiences of others, at a period in which she states that contemporary political climate makes confessional writing obsolete.

Multiple Generations, Collective Unavoidable Background

The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, covering several time periods – none able to break free from their backgrounds. There is the story of a couple named Emma and Jasper, representations of the author's parents, transitioning from the Bronx to a pastoral setting. Additionally the narrative of the author, in the character of protagonist Catt Greene, reckoning with the belated success of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, 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 rural Minnesota.

As a reader fond of polished prose of the sort the author herself tends to eschew, I was enchanted by the narrative style of the opening part.

As someone who reads drawn to crafted language of the variety that the author usually avoids, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the initial part. It exhibits a new quality of attentiveness that makes room for trivial aspects, like the container that the young Catt dislodges from ice at the opening of the book, helped by her adored dad. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she exclaims; "a nice toy", he answers, "the nuanced interpretations of terms tumbling in their mouths like sweet treats". Kraus writes Emma's story with interest and closeness. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not entirely her own."

Frustration and Disruption

I was fated to feel let down when I hoped this different style could persist to the end. The author states here that she is annoyed by the enjoyment audiences such as myself have taken from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disjunction, to the unpolished style she has in common with her hero Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her previous novels comes back in the second segment. The protagonist is attempting to do up multiple decrepit residences in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while traveling between Minnesota and LA, unable to aid her husband manage his alcohol use. She is overwhelmed as Paul cycles through underfunded jobs as an addiction therapist in a society driven by the rage and anxiety that underpins an electoral success. Multiple pages are devoted about the protagonist facing cancellation on Twitter, her listed profession modified from "author" to "property owner" on the online encyclopedia. She still gives the impression to be overly concerned about this. On one occasion she says that she's investigating the murder so that before leaving Minnesota, "she might be able to learn something about an the nation that her social media opponents would be unable to grasp, would overlook entirely".

The Killing Story

Then we reach to the actual killing – and the titular day spent by the deceased with the perpetrator and his companions. Kraus has compelling foundational content, and reconstructs step by step what happened when Brandon came to meet Brittney after connecting via an application where she marketed explicit images. He was hoping for sex but appears congenially to have passed the day alongside her friends, wandering about getting his car mended and paying for snacks and drugs, before being shot by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has often been institutionalized for fits of anger.

Fascination and Incompletion

The protagonist becomes fixated by the account, and I was intrigued by the way that her twin drives towards responsible documentation and daring boundary-pushing tussle in this section. However, I would have preferred her to go further into her individual preoccupations here. The most interesting character is Brittney herself, who comes alive in part due to Catt's identification with her – another bright, bullied girl going off the rails in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus notes that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in detention, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. The whole section feels oddly unfinished, to the degree that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par