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The Four Spent the Day Together features individuals chasing after new beginnings, struggling to escape addictions or abusive marriages, only to witness hope devolve into aggression. Kraus frequently uses the phrase "clean slate", making it willfully cynical through its repetitions. Examples include "He aimed to start over" and "They decided to make a fresh start" recur in the narrative. At the same time, Kraus herself appears to be undertaking her own fresh start, as this seems a new kind of book – fact-based, truly literary. But then it turns out to be packed with the familiar conflicts and aesthetics as her previous works.

From Accidental Writer to Iconic Work

The writer was originally an artist who became a writer almost accidentally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, made up of missives to a distant beloved, transforming personal female narrative from self-debasement into assassination. She kept producing books, but the next trio of engaging and challenging novels did not possess the impact and rawness that the epistolary style brought to the voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her role as a maverick maker who had turned into a major property owner, so there was significant attention on real estate deals. It is logical that she currently desires to explore different types of content, directing her gaze to the experiences of others, at a period in which she claims that contemporary political climate makes confessional writing unnecessary.

Multiple Generations, Shared Inescapable History

The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, covering several time periods – all unable to escape their pasts. We encounter the story of characters Emma and Jasper, versions of the author's parents, relocating from the urban environment to a pastoral setting. Additionally the narrative of the author, in the guise of a figure named Catt Greene, reckoning with the belated success of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her addict husband a man named Paul. Finally the story of the murder of one troubled youth by another in a locality mostly forsaken by liberal ideals only a brief drive from Catt's cottage in a remote part of Minnesota.

For this reader drawn to polished prose of the kind Kraus herself typically rejects, I was enchanted by the literary tone of the opening part.

Being a reader who favors honed writing of the kind that Kraus herself usually avoids, I was seduced by the literary tone of the initial part. It possesses a fresh level of observation that makes room for small details, like the container that the youthful Catt dislodges from ice at the beginning of the narrative, assisted by her beloved father. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she declares; "a lovely toy", he answers, "the elliptical meanings of words circulating in their speech like piece candy". Kraus writes the tale of Emma with inquiry and familiarity. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not entirely her own."

Letdown and Fragmentation

I was fated to feel let down when I hoped this fresh tone could continue through the novel. Kraus says here that she is annoyed by the satisfaction audiences such as myself have derived from I Love Dick; she's devoted to fragmentation, to the unpolished style she has in common with her hero author Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her previous novels reasserts itself in the central part. Catt is trying to renovate multiple decrepit residences in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while moving between the Midwest and the West Coast, unsuccessful in assisting Paul control his drinking. She experiences powerlessness as Paul moves between low-resource employment as an substance abuse counselor in a world fueled by the hostility and dread that underpins a political win. A significant portion discusses about the protagonist facing cancellation on a platform, her professional designation altered from "author" to "property owner" on the online encyclopedia. The author still appears to invest excessive emotion about this. In a moment she says that she's investigating the murder so that before leaving Minnesota, "she may grasp something about an the nation that her social media opponents would be unable to grasp, would not even see".

The Murder Narrative

Then we reach to the actual killing – and the referenced day experienced by the murdered individual with the killer and his associates. Kraus utilizes compelling foundational content, and knows hour by hour what transpired when Brandon came to meet Brittney after connecting via an application where she sold sex pictures. He sought a sexual encounter but seems affably to have spent the day with her companions, loitering having his vehicle repaired and paying for snacks and drugs, before being shot by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has repeatedly received inpatient care for aggressive outbursts.

Fascination and Incompletion

Catt gets obsessed by the story, and I was intrigued by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards ethical reporting and daring boundary-pushing wrestle in this part. However, I would have preferred her to explore more thoroughly her individual preoccupations here. The standout figure is Brittney, who becomes vivid in part due to the protagonist's connection to her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman spiraling out of control in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus tells us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in jail, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The complete segment feels curiously unresolved, to the point that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par