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The Four Spent the Day Together is populated with individuals pursuing fresh starts, struggling to escape addictions or harmful partnerships, only to see hope turn into aggression. The author often employs the phrase "clean slate", making it intentionally weary through its repetitions. Phrases such as "He aimed to start over" and "They decided to make a fresh start" appear throughout the text. And yet, the author herself is embarking on her individual reinvention, as this seems a different type of work – documentarian, genuinely novelistic. However it proves to be packed with the same dilemmas and styles as earlier books.

From Chance Novelist to Renowned Book

Kraus began as an creative who entered the literary world somewhat by chance with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, structured as missives to a distant beloved, elevating confessional female writing from self-debasement into defiance. She continued writing, but the next trio of engaging and challenging novels missed the shock and immediacy that the letter form brought to the voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her position as a maverick maker who had become a extensive real estate holder, so there was significant attention on property transactions. It follows that she currently desires to experiment with different types of content, directing her gaze to other people's stories, at a period in which she states that contemporary political climate renders personal narrative unnecessary.

Three Generations, Collective Unavoidable Background

The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, spanning several time periods – all unable to escape their histories. The book includes the story of a couple named Emma and Jasper, versions of Kraus's parents, moving from the urban environment to the Connecticut countryside. Then there is the account of Kraus, in the character of Catt Greene, reckoning with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse Paul. And there is the narrative of a homicide of one lost young man by another in a town mostly forsaken by forward-thinking policies only a brief drive from the protagonist's home in the Minnesota countryside.

From my perspective as a reader drawn to refined literature of the type Kraus herself typically rejects, I was enchanted by the novelistic voice of the initial segment.

As someone who reads who appreciates honed writing of the style that Kraus herself often disregards, I was captivated by the storytelling approach of the opening segment. There is a novel degree of detail that accommodates trivial aspects, like the container that the youthful Catt dislodges from ice at the start of the story, aided by her beloved father. "I found an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a lovely toy", he answers, "the ambiguous meanings of language rolling around in their mouths like sweet treats". She tells Emma's story with interest and closeness. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not hers, exactly."

Disappointment and Disjunction

I was bound to become frustrated when I hoped this new voice could continue through the novel. The author states here that she dislikes the satisfaction those who appreciate polished prose have taken from I Love Dick; she's devoted to fragmentation, to the untidy aesthetics she has in common with her idol author Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her previous novels returns in the central part. Catt Greene is attempting to do up multiple decrepit residences in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while moving between Minnesota and LA, unsuccessful in assisting Paul control his drinking. She feels helpless as Paul moves between poorly supported positions as an substance abuse counselor in a environment fueled by the anger and fear that underpins Trump's victory. A significant portion discusses about the protagonist facing cancellation on social media, her listed profession modified from "writer" to "real estate holder" on a reference site. Kraus still seems to care a little too much about this. In a moment she says that she's looking into the killing so that before leaving Minnesota, "she could potentially understand something about an the United States that her social media opponents would not understand, would not even perceive".

The Homicide Account

Thus we arrive to the actual killing – and the titular day spent by the murdered individual with the perpetrator and his associates. Kraus has compelling foundational content, and details moment by moment what occurred as the victim Brandon came to visit Brittney after connecting via an application where she marketed explicit images. He anticipated intimacy but seems affably to have spent the day alongside her friends, mooching around 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 develops an obsession by the account, and I was intrigued by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards accurate chronicling and audacious rule-breaking wrestle in this part. Yet I wished her to go further into her personal fixations here. The compelling persona is Brittney herself, who gains dimension partly through Catt seeing herself in her – another bright, bullied girl spiraling out of control in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus notes that Catt converses with Brittney in detention, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. The whole section feels curiously unresolved, to the extent that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par