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The Four Spent the Day Together centers on protagonists pursuing new beginnings, struggling to escape substance abuse or harmful partnerships, only to see hope turn into violence. Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "clean slate", rendering it willfully cynical through constant reiteration. Examples include "He aimed to start over" and "They chose to begin anew" appear throughout the text. At the same time, she appears to be undertaking her personal new beginning, because this seems a different type of work – fact-based, authentically narrative. However it proves to be packed with the familiar conflicts and aesthetics as past novels.

From Chance Novelist to Iconic Work

Kraus was originally an artist who transitioned to writing somewhat by chance with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, structured as missives to a distant beloved, transforming intimate women's literature from self-debasement into rebellion. She continued writing, but the following three fascinating and rebarbative novels missed the impact and rawness that the letter form infused into the tone of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her role as a renegade artist who had become a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was much discussion on housing investments. It follows that she currently desires to explore fresh narrative sources, directing her gaze to the experiences of others, at a period in which she asserts that contemporary political climate turns intimate literature obsolete.

Several Eras, Collective Unavoidable Background

The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, covering several time periods – each trapped by their pasts. The book includes the story of characters Emma and Jasper, representations of her own mother and father, moving from the Bronx to a pastoral setting. Then there is the narrative of the author, in the character of protagonist Catt Greene, grappling with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her substance-dependent spouse a man named Paul. The third thread involves the narrative of a homicide of one directionless individual by another in a locality long abandoned by progressive politics only 80 miles from Catt's cottage in the Minnesota countryside.

For this reader drawn to polished prose of the sort Kraus tends to eschew, I was enchanted by the novelistic voice of the first section.

As a reader drawn to crafted language of the kind that Kraus herself usually avoids, I was captivated by the storytelling approach of the first section. It exhibits a novel degree of detail that allows space for small details, like the container that the young Catt frees from the ice at the opening of the book, helped by her beloved father. "I found an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a lovely toy", he replies, "the nuanced interpretations of terms rolling around in their mouths like hard candy". Kraus writes Emma's narrative with interest and closeness. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not precisely her dream."

Letdown and Fragmentation

I was bound to become frustrated when I expected this different style could last out the book. The author states here that she is annoyed by the enjoyment audiences such as myself have taken from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to fragmentation, to the unpolished style she has in common with her idol writer Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her past books comes back in the central part. The protagonist is working on refurbishing 36 run-down apartments in the city's most challenging districts while shuttling between two different states, unable to aid Paul manage his alcohol use. She experiences powerlessness as Paul cycles through low-resource employment as an recovery specialist in a environment driven by the rage and anxiety that powers an electoral success. There are several pages about Catt's social media ostracism on social media, her professional designation altered from "writer" to "real estate holder" on the online encyclopedia. She still gives the impression to be overly concerned about this. At one point she remarks that she's looking into the killing so that before departing the state, "she might be able to learn something about an the nation that her online critics would be unable to grasp, would not even see".

The Killing Story

Then we reach to the homicide in question – and the titular day passed by the deceased with the killer and his companions. The author possesses excellent raw material, and details moment by moment what occurred as the victim 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 with her companions, loitering getting his car mended and covering the cost of food and substances, before being murdered by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has often been institutionalized for violent rage.

Obsession and Unfinished Business

Catt develops an obsession by the account, and I found myself captivated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards responsible documentation and daring boundary-pushing clash in this segment. But I'd have liked her to delve deeper into her personal fixations here. The standout figure is Brittney herself, who comes alive partially because of Catt's identification with her – another bright, bullied girl derailing in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus tells us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in jail, but she fails to enact these dialogues. This entire part feels oddly unfinished, to the degree that her narrative ends almost mid-par