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The Four Spent the Day Together is populated with individuals seeking fresh starts, struggling to escape addictions or harmful partnerships, only to witness hope devolve into aggression. The author frequently uses the phrase "clean slate", rendering it willfully cynical through recurring use. Phrases such as "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They opted for a clean break" appear throughout the text. And yet, Kraus herself seems to be making her own fresh start, because this appears a novel form of writing – observational, authentically narrative. Yet it turns out to be packed with the familiar conflicts and styles as earlier books.

From Chance Novelist to Iconic Work

Kraus started out as an artist who transitioned to writing unintentionally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, which was composed of missives to a distant beloved, converting personal female narrative from abjection into assassination. She persisted as a writer, but the next trio of fascinating and rebarbative novels missed the power and directness that the letter form imparted to the tone of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her role as a renegade artist who had evolved into a major property owner, so there was significant attention on housing investments. It follows that she presently aims to explore different types of content, looking outwards to external narratives, at a moment when she states that current political era turns intimate literature redundant.

Multiple Generations, Collective Unavoidable Background

The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, covering several time periods – all unable to escape their backgrounds. There is the story of a couple named Emma and Jasper, representations of Kraus's parents, moving from the Bronx to a pastoral setting. Then there is the narrative of the author, in the guise of Catt Greene, confronting the belated success of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction a man named Paul. And there is the narrative of a homicide of one troubled youth by another in a town largely deserted by progressive politics only a short distance from Catt's cottage in rural Minnesota.

For this reader attracted to refined literature of the type the author herself tends to eschew, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the opening part.

As a reader drawn to crafted language of the variety that the author often disregards, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the opening segment. It exhibits a novel degree of detail that accommodates minutiae, like the container that the young Catt frees from the ice at the opening of the book, aided by her cherished parent. "I found an ice toy!" she says; "a nice toy", he responds, "the nuanced interpretations of terms circulating in their speech like sweet treats". Kraus writes Emma's story with interest and closeness. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not entirely her own."

Frustration and Disruption

I was bound to become frustrated when I expected this new voice could last out the book. Kraus says here that she dislikes the pleasure audiences such as myself have gotten from I Love Dick; she's committed to disjunction, to the unpolished style she shares with her inspiration Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her past books comes back in the middle section. Catt is trying to renovate three dozen dilapidated units in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while traveling between two different states, unsuccessful in assisting her husband curb his addiction. She experiences powerlessness as Paul transitions between low-resource employment as an substance abuse counselor in a world propelled by the anger and fear that drives an electoral success. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt's social media ostracism on social media, her occupation changed from "author" to "landlord" on Wikipedia. The author still appears to invest excessive emotion about this. On one occasion she remarks that she's investigating the murder so that before leaving Minnesota, "she could potentially understand something about an the United States that her social media opponents would not understand, would not even perceive".

The Homicide Account

So then we come to the murder itself – and the eponymous day passed by the deceased with the murderer and his friends. Kraus utilizes great source material, and reconstructs step by step what occurred as a man named Brandon came to visit Brittney after meeting her on an app where she offered adult photos. He sought a sexual encounter but seems affably to have spent the day in the company of her associates, mooching around having his vehicle repaired and funding treats and narcotics, before being shot by Brittney's partner Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has frequently been hospitalised for aggressive outbursts.

Obsession and Unfinished Business

The protagonist becomes fixated by the account, and I was fascinated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards accurate chronicling and reckless transgression tussle in this section. Yet I wished her to explore more thoroughly her own obsessions here. The standout figure is the character Brittney, who becomes vivid partially because of Catt's identification with her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual spiraling out of control in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus notes that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in detention, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. This entire part feels oddly unfinished, to the point that her narrative ends almost mid-par