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The Four Spent the Day Together is populated with protagonists seeking new beginnings, struggling to escape addictions or toxic relationships, only to see hope turn into conflict. Kraus often employs the phrase "fresh start", transforming it into willfully cynical through constant reiteration. Sentences like "He could make a fresh start" and "They opted for a clean break" are scattered across the text. And yet, she is embarking on her individual reinvention, as this appears a novel form of writing – documentarian, genuinely novelistic. But then it reveals itself to be filled with the recurring issues and aesthetics as earlier books.

From Chance Novelist to Iconic Work

Kraus was originally an creative who entered the literary world unintentionally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, made up of missives to a distant beloved, elevating intimate women's literature from abjection into defiance. She kept producing books, but the next trio of engaging and challenging novels lacked the power and directness that the epistolary style brought to the voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her identity as a nonconformist creator who had become a major property owner, so there was much discussion on housing investments. It follows that she now wants to try out different types of content, turning outward to the experiences of others, at a period in which she claims that contemporary political climate makes confessional writing unnecessary.

Several Eras, One Unescapable Past

The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, spanning three generations – none able to break free from their histories. We encounter the story of characters Emma and Jasper, representations of the author's parents, relocating from the Bronx to rural Connecticut. Additionally the story of Kraus herself, in the guise of protagonist Catt Greene, confronting the belated success of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her substance-dependent spouse a man named Paul. Finally the account of a killing of one troubled youth by another in a locality mostly forsaken by forward-thinking policies only a short distance from Catt's cottage in rural Minnesota.

As a reader drawn to refined literature of the type Kraus herself typically rejects, I was seduced by the literary tone of the first section.

As someone who reads who favors honed writing of the kind that the author tends to eschew, I was won over by the literary tone of the first section. There is a fresh level of observation that allows space for small details, like the pail that the youthful Catt dislodges from ice at the beginning of the narrative, aided by her cherished parent. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she declares; "a nice toy", he replies, "the nuanced interpretations of terms circulating in their speech like piece candy". Kraus writes the tale of Emma with interest and closeness. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not hers, exactly."

Disappointment and Disjunction

I was destined to be disappointed when I hoped this new voice could persist to the end. The author states here that she dislikes the enjoyment those who appreciate polished prose have gotten from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disjunction, to the messy artistic approach she shares with her hero Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her previous novels returns in the second segment. Catt Greene is trying to renovate 36 run-down apartments in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while traveling between Minnesota and LA, failing to help Paul control his drinking. She feels helpless as her spouse cycles through low-resource employment as an addiction therapist in a world driven by the rage and anxiety that powers a political win. A significant portion discusses about the protagonist facing cancellation on social media, her listed profession modified from "author" to "real estate holder" on a reference site. She still gives the impression to care a little too much about this. At one point she says that she's investigating the murder so that before leaving Minnesota, "she might be able to learn something about an the nation that her Twitter detractors would be unable to grasp, would not even see".

The Homicide Account

Thus we arrive to the homicide in question – and the eponymous day experienced by the murdered individual with the murderer and his friends. Kraus utilizes compelling foundational content, and details moment by moment what occurred as a man named Brandon came to see Brittney after connecting via an application where she offered adult photos. 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 killed by gunfire by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has frequently been hospitalised for violent rage.

Fascination and Incompletion

Catt gets obsessed by the account, and I found myself captivated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards ethical reporting and daring boundary-pushing wrestle in this part. But I'd have liked her to go further into her own obsessions here. The most interesting character is Brittney, who comes alive partially because of the protagonist's connection to her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman derailing in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus tells us that Catt speaks to Brittney in prison, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The whole section feels strangely incomplete, to the extent that her narrative ends almost mid-par