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The Four Spent the Day Together features protagonists pursuing new beginnings, attempting to leave behind drugs or toxic relationships, only to find hope curdling into aggression. Kraus often employs the phrase "fresh start", rendering it deliberately jaded through its repetitions. Phrases such as "He aimed to start over" and "They opted for a clean break" are scattered across the story. At the same time, the author herself is embarking on her individual reinvention, as this appears a novel form of writing – fact-based, genuinely novelistic. But then it reveals itself to be packed with the recurring issues and aesthetics as her previous works.

From Chance Novelist to Renowned Book

Kraus began as an creative who entered the literary world unintentionally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, structured as epistles to an unresponsive love interest, transforming intimate women's literature from abjection into rebellion. She persisted as a writer, but the following three engaging and challenging novels missed the shock and immediacy that the epistolary style infused into the voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her position as a nonconformist creator who had evolved into a major property owner, so there was considerable focus on housing investments. It follows that she presently aims to explore fresh narrative sources, turning outward to the experiences of others, at a period in which she claims that Trumpian politics makes confessional writing obsolete.

Several Eras, Shared Inescapable History

The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, spanning multiple eras – each trapped by their backgrounds. There is the narrative about Emma and Jasper, versions of her own mother and father, transitioning from the urban environment to the Connecticut countryside. Additionally the story of Kraus herself, in the guise of protagonist Catt Greene, grappling with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse her husband Paul. The third thread involves the story of the murder of one troubled youth by another in a locality mostly forsaken by forward-thinking policies only a short distance from Catt's rural residence in the Minnesota countryside.

From my perspective as a reader fond of refined literature of the sort Kraus often avoids, I was captivated by the literary tone of the opening part.

Being a reader who favors precise prose of the style that Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was won over by the literary tone of the initial part. There is a fresh level of observation that makes room for small details, like the container that the protagonist as a child dislodges from ice at the opening of the book, assisted by her beloved father. "I found an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a nice toy", he answers, "the nuanced interpretations of terms circulating in their speech like hard candy". She tells the tale of Emma with interest and closeness. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not entirely her own."

Frustration and Disruption

I was fated to feel let down when I wished this fresh tone could continue through the novel. Kraus notes here that she is annoyed by the enjoyment readers like me have taken from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disjunction, to the messy artistic approach she has in common with her idol writer Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her earlier works reasserts itself in the middle section. Catt is trying to renovate 36 run-down apartments in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while traveling between the Midwest and the West Coast, unable to aid her husband control his drinking. She is overwhelmed as her spouse transitions between underfunded jobs as an substance abuse counselor in a world driven by the anger and fear that drives a political win. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt being cancelled on Twitter, her occupation changed from "novelist" to "landlord" on a reference site. The author still appears to be overly concerned about this. At one point she says that she's researching the homicide so that before exiting the region, "she might be able to learn something about an America that her Twitter detractors would fail to comprehend, would not even see".

The Killing Story

So then we come to the homicide in question – and the referenced day experienced by the murdered individual with the killer and his companions. Kraus has excellent raw material, and knows hour by hour what transpired when Brandon came to meet Brittney after connecting via an application where she marketed explicit images. He anticipated intimacy but seems affably to have spent the day in the company of her associates, wandering about having his vehicle repaired and covering the cost of food and substances, before being murdered by her romantic interest Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has repeatedly received inpatient care for fits of anger.

Fascination and Incompletion

Catt gets obsessed by the account, and I was fascinated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards accurate chronicling and reckless transgression clash in this segment. However, I would have preferred her to delve deeper into her personal fixations here. The compelling persona is Brittney, who comes alive partly through Catt seeing herself in her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual spiraling out of control in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus notes that Catt speaks to Brittney in jail, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. The complete segment feels oddly unfinished, to the degree that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par