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The Four Spent the Day Together centers on characters pursuing new beginnings, attempting to leave behind substance abuse or toxic relationships, only to find hope curdling into aggression. Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "clean slate", transforming it into willfully cynical through constant reiteration. Phrases such as "He could make a fresh start" and "They opted for a clean break" appear throughout the narrative. And yet, the author herself is embarking on her personal new beginning, because this presents as a different type of work – observational, genuinely novelistic. Yet it proves to be laden with the recurring issues and aesthetics as earlier books.

From Unplanned Author to Iconic Work

Kraus began as an creative who became a writer almost accidentally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, made up of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, transforming confessional female writing from abjection into assassination. She kept producing books, but the next trio of engaging and challenging novels did not possess the power and directness that the correspondence format imparted to the tone of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her position as a nonconformist creator who had evolved into a extensive real estate holder, so there was much discussion on property transactions. It is logical that she now wants to explore different types of content, looking outwards to the experiences of others, at a moment when she states that contemporary political climate makes confessional writing obsolete.

Three Generations, One Unescapable Past

The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, encompassing several time periods – all unable to escape their backgrounds. There is the narrative about a couple named Emma and Jasper, versions of her own mother and father, relocating from the Bronx to a pastoral setting. Then there is the narrative of the author, in the guise of Catt Greene, confronting the late recognition 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 lost young man by another in a community mostly forsaken by progressive politics only a short distance from the protagonist's home in a remote part of Minnesota.

From my perspective as a reader drawn to polished prose of the kind the author herself typically rejects, I was enchanted by the literary tone of the first section.

Being a reader drawn to honed writing of the style that the author tends to eschew, 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 pail that the youthful Catt frees from the ice at the opening of the book, aided by her beloved father. "I found an ice toy!" she declares; "a nice toy", he answers, "the elliptical meanings of words circulating in their speech like piece candy". She tells Emma's narrative with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not hers, exactly."

Letdown and Fragmentation

I was destined to be disappointed when I expected this new voice could last out the book. Kraus says here that she is annoyed by the satisfaction audiences such as myself have taken from I Love Dick; she's committed to fragmentation, to the unpolished style she shares with her idol writer Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her earlier works reasserts itself in the central part. Catt Greene is trying to renovate three dozen dilapidated units in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while shuttling between the Midwest and the West Coast, failing to help her husband manage his alcohol use. She feels helpless as her spouse cycles through low-resource employment as an recovery specialist in a environment propelled by the anger and fear that powers a political win. A significant portion discusses about Catt being cancelled on a platform, her listed profession modified from "author" to "real estate holder" on a reference site. The author still appears to care a little too much about this. In a moment she says that she's researching the homicide so that before departing the state, "she could potentially understand something about an America that her social media opponents would be unable to grasp, would not even perceive".

The Killing Story

Thus we arrive to the actual killing – and the eponymous day experienced by the murdered individual with the killer and his friends. Kraus has compelling foundational content, and knows hour by hour what happened when Brandon came to visit Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she marketed explicit images. He sought a sexual encounter but seems amiably to have occupied the day with her companions, mooching around getting his car mended and funding treats and narcotics, before being murdered by her romantic interest Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has frequently been hospitalised for fits of anger.

Preoccupation and Open Ends

Catt develops an obsession by the account, and I found myself captivated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards ethical reporting and daring boundary-pushing clash in this segment. However, I would have preferred her to go further into her individual preoccupations here. The compelling persona is the character Brittney, who comes alive partly through the protagonist's connection to her – another bright, bullied girl spiraling out of control in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus tells us that Catt speaks to Brittney in jail, but she fails to enact these dialogues. This entire part feels strangely incomplete, to the degree that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par