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The Four Spent the Day Together centers on characters pursuing fresh starts, attempting to leave behind addictions or harmful partnerships, only to witness hope devolve into conflict. Kraus frequently uses the phrase "clean slate", making it willfully cynical through constant reiteration. Phrases such as "He aimed to start over" and "They opted for a clean break" appear throughout the story. At the same time, the author herself appears to be undertaking her own fresh start, since this seems a different type of work – fact-based, genuinely novelistic. But then it proves to be packed with the recurring issues and styles as her previous works.

From Unplanned Author to Renowned Book

Kraus started out as an artist who transitioned to writing almost accidentally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, structured as epistles to an unresponsive love interest, transforming personal female narrative from abjection into assassination. She kept producing books, but the three subsequent fascinating and rebarbative novels missed the shock and immediacy that the epistolary style brought to the voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her role as a renegade artist who had turned into a major property owner, so there was significant attention on housing investments. It follows that she now wants to explore fresh narrative sources, directing her gaze to external narratives, at a period in which she claims that current political era makes confessional writing redundant.

Three Generations, One Unescapable Past

The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, spanning several time periods – all unable to escape their backgrounds. We encounter the story of characters Emma and Jasper, representations of her own mother and father, transitioning from the New York borough to rural Connecticut. Additionally the account of Kraus, in the persona of protagonist Catt Greene, grappling with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her addict husband a man named Paul. And there is the narrative of a homicide of one lost young man by another in a community long abandoned by liberal ideals only a brief drive from Catt's rural residence in the Minnesota countryside.

As a reader attracted to refined literature of the kind the author herself often avoids, I was captivated by the narrative style of the opening part.

As a reader who favors honed writing of the kind that the author tends to eschew, I was won over by the novelistic voice of the initial part. There is a new quality of attentiveness that accommodates trivial aspects, like the container that the protagonist as a child dislodges from ice at the opening of the book, helped by her cherished parent. "I found an ice toy!" she says; "a great plaything", he responds, "the nuanced interpretations of terms tumbling in their mouths like sweet treats". The author narrates Emma's story with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not hers, exactly."

Frustration and Disruption

I was destined to be disappointed when I expected this fresh tone could last out the book. The author states here that she resents the satisfaction readers like me have gotten from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to fragmentation, to the untidy aesthetics she echoes from her idol author Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her past books comes back in the middle section. The protagonist is trying to renovate 36 run-down apartments in the city's most challenging districts while shuttling between two different states, failing to help Paul manage his alcohol use. She experiences powerlessness as her spouse cycles through underfunded jobs as an addiction therapist in a world driven by the hostility and dread that drives a political win. A significant portion discusses about Catt's social media ostracism on Twitter, her occupation changed from "writer" to "property owner" on a reference site. The author still appears to be overly concerned about this. In a moment 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 overlook entirely".

The Killing Story

Thus we arrive to the actual killing – and the eponymous day spent by the victim with the perpetrator and his friends. Kraus utilizes great source material, and details moment by moment what happened when Brandon came to visit Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she marketed explicit images. He anticipated intimacy but appears congenially to have passed the day alongside her friends, wandering about fixing his automobile and paying for snacks and drugs, before being murdered by Brittney's partner a man named Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has often been institutionalized for violent rage.

Preoccupation and Open Ends

The protagonist becomes fixated by the story, and I found myself captivated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards ethical reporting and daring boundary-pushing clash in this segment. However, I would have preferred her to delve deeper into her personal fixations here. The compelling persona is the character Brittney, who comes alive partly through Catt's identification with her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman going off the rails in a difficult, overlooked locality. The author informs us that Catt converses with Brittney in prison, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. The complete segment feels oddly unfinished, to the point that her narrative ends almost mid-par