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The Four Spent the Day Together centers on protagonists chasing after fresh starts, attempting to leave behind addictions or abusive marriages, only to see hope turn into violence. The author repeatedly invokes the phrase "fresh start", transforming it into intentionally weary through recurring use. Examples include "He aimed to start over" and "They opted for a clean break" recur in the story. At the same time, Kraus herself appears to be undertaking her personal new beginning, because this presents as a new kind of book – documentarian, truly literary. Yet it turns out to be laden with the same dilemmas and aesthetics as her previous works.

From Accidental Writer to Iconic Work

The writer was originally an creative who became a writer unintentionally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, made up of missives to a distant beloved, converting confessional female writing from abjection into rebellion. She kept producing books, but the next trio of compelling and abrasive novels lacked the impact and rawness that the correspondence format infused into the tone of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her role as a maverick maker who had evolved into a extensive real estate holder, so there was much discussion on property transactions. It follows that she now wants to experiment with new kinds of material, directing her gaze to the experiences of others, at a time when she asserts that contemporary political climate turns intimate literature unnecessary.

Several Eras, Collective Unavoidable Background

The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, covering several time periods – all unable to escape their pasts. There is the tale of characters Emma and Jasper, based on the author's parents, transitioning from the Bronx to a pastoral setting. Then there is the narrative of the author, in the character of protagonist Catt Greene, confronting the belated success of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her addict husband her husband Paul. Finally the story of the murder of one directionless individual by another in a locality largely deserted by liberal ideals only a brief drive from Catt's cottage in a remote part of Minnesota.

As a reader drawn to polished prose of the sort Kraus herself typically rejects, I was captivated by the literary tone of the opening part.

As a reader who appreciates precise prose of the variety that Kraus often disregards, I was seduced by the storytelling approach of the initial part. There is a novel degree of detail that makes room for small details, like the pail that the protagonist as a child dislodges from ice at the beginning of the narrative, assisted by her cherished parent. "Look, an ice toy!" she declares; "a nice toy", he answers, "the elliptical meanings of words tumbling in their mouths like hard candy". She tells the tale of Emma with interest and closeness. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not hers, exactly."

Frustration and Disruption

I was destined to be disappointed when I expected this different style could persist to the end. Kraus says here that she resents the pleasure those who appreciate polished prose have derived from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disjunction, to the unpolished style she shares with her hero author Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her past books returns in the central part. Catt Greene is trying to renovate multiple decrepit residences in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while shuttling between Minnesota and LA, failing to help Paul curb his addiction. She experiences powerlessness as Paul moves between underfunded jobs as an recovery specialist in a world driven by the anger and fear that underpins a political win. Multiple pages are devoted about the protagonist facing cancellation on social media, her listed profession modified from "novelist" to "real estate holder" on Wikipedia. Kraus still seems to invest excessive emotion about this. In a moment she says that she's researching the homicide so that before exiting the region, "she may grasp something about an the United States that her Twitter detractors would not understand, would overlook entirely".

The Murder Narrative

Thus we arrive to the murder itself – and the titular day passed by the murdered individual with the murderer and his associates. The author possesses great source material, and reconstructs step by step what occurred as the victim Brandon came to visit 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, wandering about fixing his automobile and paying for snacks and drugs, before being shot by Brittney's partner Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has often been institutionalized for violent rage.

Fascination and Incompletion

Catt gets obsessed by the narrative, and I was intrigued by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards responsible documentation and audacious rule-breaking wrestle in this part. Yet I wished her to go further into her own obsessions here. The compelling persona is the character Brittney, who becomes vivid in part due to the protagonist's connection to her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual derailing in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus notes that Catt speaks to Brittney in prison, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. The whole section feels oddly unfinished, to the extent that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par