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The Four Spent the Day Together is populated with protagonists pursuing fresh starts, attempting to leave behind addictions or abusive marriages, only to see hope turn into conflict. Kraus frequently uses the phrase "clean slate", rendering it willfully cynical through recurring use. Examples include "He aimed to start over" and "They decided to make a fresh start" recur in the text. And yet, she appears to be undertaking her personal new beginning, because this presents as a novel form of writing – observational, genuinely novelistic. However it reveals itself to be laden with the familiar conflicts and aesthetics as past novels.

From Chance Novelist to Iconic Work

Kraus began as an artist who transitioned to writing somewhat by chance with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, made up of missives to a distant beloved, elevating intimate women's literature from humiliation into assassination. She kept producing books, but the three subsequent compelling and abrasive novels lacked the power and directness that the epistolary style infused into the voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her position as a renegade artist who had turned into a major property owner, so there was significant attention on housing investments. It is logical that she currently desires to explore fresh narrative sources, turning outward to external narratives, at a time when she claims that Trumpian politics makes confessional writing redundant.

Several Eras, Shared Inescapable History

The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, encompassing several time periods – none able to break free from their backgrounds. The book includes the tale of characters Emma and Jasper, based on her own mother and father, transitioning from the urban environment to the Connecticut countryside. There is the story of Kraus herself, in the character of protagonist Catt Greene, reckoning with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction Paul. And there is the narrative of a homicide of one directionless individual by another in a town mostly forsaken by forward-thinking policies only a brief drive from Catt's cottage in the Minnesota countryside.

From my perspective as a reader drawn to polished prose of the sort the author herself tends to eschew, I was enchanted by the literary tone of the first section.

As a reader who appreciates precise prose of the kind that the author tends to eschew, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the initial part. It possesses a new quality of attentiveness that accommodates minutiae, like the container that the young Catt dislodges from ice at the beginning of the narrative, aided by her adored dad. "Look, an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a lovely toy", he answers, "the nuanced interpretations of terms tumbling in their mouths like sweet treats". Kraus writes the tale of Emma with interest and closeness. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not precisely her dream."

Frustration and Disruption

I was destined to be disappointed when I hoped this different style could continue through the novel. The author states here that she dislikes the satisfaction audiences such as myself have gotten from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disjunction, to the unpolished style she shares with her idol author Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her earlier works comes back in the middle section. The protagonist is trying to renovate three dozen dilapidated units in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while traveling between Minnesota and LA, unable to aid Paul manage his alcohol use. She experiences powerlessness as Paul transitions between poorly supported positions as an addiction therapist in a environment driven by the anger and fear that underpins a political win. Multiple pages are devoted about the protagonist facing cancellation on a platform, her occupation changed from "novelist" to "landlord" on Wikipedia. Kraus still seems to be overly concerned about this. At one point she states that she's investigating the murder so that before leaving Minnesota, "she could potentially understand something about an America that her Twitter detractors would not understand, would overlook entirely".

The Homicide Account

Thus we arrive to the actual killing – and the referenced day experienced by the victim with the killer and his associates. The author possesses excellent raw material, and reconstructs step by step what occurred as a man named Brandon came to meet Brittney after meeting her on an app where she sold sex pictures. He anticipated intimacy but appears congenially to have passed the day alongside her friends, loitering fixing his automobile and covering the cost of food and substances, before being murdered by her romantic interest Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has often been institutionalized for fits of anger.

Obsession and Unfinished Business

Catt gets obsessed by the account, and I found myself captivated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards responsible documentation and reckless transgression clash in this segment. Yet I wished her to explore more thoroughly her personal fixations here. The most interesting character is Brittney herself, who becomes vivid partially because of Catt seeing herself in her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman derailing in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus tells us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in prison, but she fails to enact these dialogues. This entire part feels oddly unfinished, to the point that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par