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The Four Spent the Day Together is populated with protagonists chasing after clean slates, struggling to escape addictions or harmful partnerships, only to witness hope devolve into violence. The author frequently uses the phrase "new beginning", transforming it into deliberately jaded through its repetitions. Sentences like "He could make a fresh start" and "They chose to begin anew" appear throughout the text. Meanwhile, she is embarking on her personal new beginning, since this appears a novel form of writing – fact-based, authentically narrative. Yet it reveals itself to be laden with the recurring issues and aesthetics as earlier books.

From Unplanned Author to Renowned Book

The writer began as an artist who transitioned to writing almost accidentally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, which was composed of letters to an unreceptive lover, elevating personal female narrative from abjection into defiance. She kept producing books, but the three subsequent compelling and abrasive novels missed the shock and immediacy that the letter form brought to the voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her role as a renegade artist who had become a major property owner, so there was much discussion on housing investments. It follows that she currently desires to experiment with new kinds of material, turning outward to other people's stories, at a period in which she asserts that current political era makes confessional writing redundant.

Three Generations, Collective Unavoidable Background

The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, spanning multiple eras – each trapped by their histories. There is the tale of Emma and Jasper, based on Kraus's parents, moving from the Bronx to rural Connecticut. Then there is the narrative of the author, in the guise of a figure named Catt Greene, grappling with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction her husband Paul. And there is the account of a killing of one lost young man by another in a town long abandoned by progressive politics 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 type the author herself typically rejects, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the opening part.

Being a reader who appreciates honed writing of the kind that Kraus herself usually avoids, I was won over by the literary tone of the initial part. It possesses a fresh level of observation that allows space for minutiae, like the bucket that the young Catt frees from the ice at the start of the story, helped by her adored dad. "Look, an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a nice toy", he responds, "the ambiguous meanings of language rolling around in their mouths like hard candy". Kraus writes Emma's story with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not hers, exactly."

Letdown and Fragmentation

I was bound to become frustrated when I expected this different style could continue through the novel. Kraus notes here that she resents the satisfaction readers like me have gotten from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disjunction, to the messy artistic approach she shares with her idol Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her earlier works comes back in the central part. The protagonist is attempting to do up multiple decrepit residences in the city's most challenging districts while traveling between Minnesota and LA, unsuccessful in assisting her husband control his drinking. She experiences powerlessness as her spouse transitions between underfunded jobs as an substance abuse counselor in a world driven by the rage and anxiety that underpins Trump's victory. Multiple pages are devoted about the protagonist facing cancellation on social media, her occupation changed from "author" to "property owner" on Wikipedia. Kraus still seems to care a little too much about this. At one point she states that she's investigating the murder so that before exiting the region, "she could potentially understand something about an the United States that her Twitter detractors would be unable to grasp, would not even see".

The Murder Narrative

Thus we arrive to the homicide in question – and the titular day passed by the murdered individual with the killer and his associates. Kraus has excellent raw material, and knows hour by hour what occurred as a man named Brandon came to see Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she sold sex pictures. He anticipated intimacy but seems affably to have spent the day with her companions, mooching around having his vehicle repaired and covering the cost of food and substances, before being shot by Brittney's partner Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has repeatedly received inpatient care for aggressive outbursts.

Obsession and Unfinished Business

Catt develops an obsession by the narrative, and I found myself captivated by the way that her twin drives towards accurate chronicling and reckless transgression clash in this segment. However, I would have preferred her to explore more thoroughly her personal fixations here. The compelling persona is Brittney, who comes alive partially because of the protagonist's connection to her – another bright, bullied girl going off the rails in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus notes that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in jail, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The complete segment feels strangely incomplete, to the degree that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par