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The Four Spent the Day Together features protagonists seeking new beginnings, struggling to escape substance abuse or toxic relationships, only to see hope turn into aggression. Kraus frequently uses the phrase "clean slate", transforming it into intentionally weary through recurring use. Phrases such as "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They chose to begin anew" appear throughout the narrative. And yet, Kraus herself appears to be undertaking her own fresh start, as this seems a novel form of writing – fact-based, authentically narrative. However it reveals itself to be laden with the recurring issues and approaches as past novels.

From Accidental Writer to Cult Classic

The writer started out as an visual artist who became a writer unintentionally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, which was composed of letters to an unreceptive lover, transforming intimate women's literature from abjection into rebellion. She kept producing books, but the following three engaging and challenging novels lacked the impact and rawness that the letter form imparted to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her role as a renegade artist who had become a major property owner, so there was significant attention on real estate deals. It is logical that she now wants to try out new kinds of material, turning outward to the experiences of others, at a time when she claims that contemporary political climate turns intimate literature redundant.

Three Generations, Shared Inescapable History

The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, covering several time periods – 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 Bronx to a pastoral setting. There is the account of Kraus, in the guise of protagonist Catt Greene, confronting the belated success of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her partner struggling with addiction Paul. The third thread involves the story of the murder of one directionless individual by another in a town long abandoned by forward-thinking policies only a brief drive from Catt's cottage in a remote part of Minnesota.

From my perspective as a reader attracted to polished prose of the sort the author herself tends to eschew, I was enchanted by the narrative style of the opening part.

As a reader drawn to honed writing of the kind that the author usually avoids, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the opening segment. It exhibits a fresh level of observation that makes room for minutiae, like the pail that the protagonist as a child frees from the ice at the opening of the book, aided by her beloved father. "Look, an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a nice toy", he responds, "the ambiguous meanings of language tumbling in their mouths like hard candy". The author narrates Emma's story with interest and closeness. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not entirely her own."

Disappointment and Disjunction

I was fated to feel let down when I expected this new voice could continue through the novel. Kraus says here that she resents the pleasure readers like me have gotten from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disruption, to the unpolished style she shares with her hero author Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her previous novels comes back in the central part. Catt is working on refurbishing 36 run-down apartments in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while traveling between two different states, unable to aid her husband curb his addiction. She is overwhelmed as her spouse cycles through low-resource employment as an substance abuse counselor in a world fueled by the anger and fear that underpins an electoral success. There are several pages about Catt's social media ostracism on social media, her occupation changed from "novelist" to "property owner" on Wikipedia. Kraus still seems to invest excessive emotion about this. On one occasion she states that she's researching the homicide so that before exiting the region, "she may grasp something about an America that her social media opponents would not understand, would not even see".

The Homicide Account

Thus we arrive to the murder itself – and the titular day experienced by the deceased with the killer and his associates. Kraus has great source material, and details moment by moment what happened when the victim Brandon came to see Brittney after connecting via an application where she marketed explicit images. He anticipated intimacy but seems amiably to have occupied the day with her companions, mooching around having his vehicle repaired and funding treats and narcotics, before being shot by Brittney's boyfriend a man named Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has often been institutionalized for aggressive outbursts.

Obsession and Unfinished Business

Catt gets obsessed by the account, and I was fascinated by the way that her twin drives towards accurate chronicling and daring boundary-pushing clash in this segment. But I'd have liked her to explore more thoroughly her individual preoccupations here. The standout figure is Brittney herself, who gains dimension partly through the protagonist's connection to her – another bright, bullied girl spiraling out of control in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus notes that Catt converses with Brittney in prison, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The complete segment feels curiously unresolved, to the degree that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par