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The Four Spent the Day Together centers on characters seeking fresh starts, struggling to escape substance abuse or harmful partnerships, only to see hope turn into conflict. Kraus often employs the phrase "fresh start", rendering it willfully cynical through constant reiteration. Sentences like "He could make a fresh start" and "They decided to make a fresh start" appear throughout the narrative. Meanwhile, she is embarking on her individual reinvention, since this seems a new kind of book – observational, authentically narrative. But then it turns out to be laden with the recurring issues and aesthetics as earlier books.

From Unplanned Author to Renowned Book

Kraus was originally an artist who transitioned to writing unintentionally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, which was composed of missives to a distant beloved, elevating intimate women's literature from abjection into defiance. She persisted as a writer, but the following three fascinating and rebarbative novels lacked the impact and rawness that the epistolary style brought to the voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her position as a maverick maker who had evolved into a extensive real estate holder, so there was much discussion on housing investments. It makes sense that she now wants to explore fresh narrative sources, turning outward to the experiences of others, at a period in which she asserts that contemporary political climate makes confessional writing obsolete.

Several Eras, Shared Inescapable History

The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, encompassing several time periods – each trapped by their backgrounds. We encounter the tale of characters Emma and Jasper, representations of the author's parents, transitioning from the urban environment to rural Connecticut. Then there is the story of Kraus herself, in the character of Catt Greene, grappling with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse a man named Paul. Finally the narrative of a homicide of one troubled youth by another in a locality largely deserted by forward-thinking policies only a short distance from Catt's cottage in rural Minnesota.

As a reader attracted to honed writing of the kind Kraus typically rejects, I was enchanted by the literary tone of the opening part.

As a reader who favors crafted language of the style that Kraus often disregards, I was seduced by the storytelling approach of the first section. There is a new quality of attentiveness that accommodates small details, like the pail that the protagonist as a child dislodges from ice at the opening of the book, assisted by her beloved father. "I found an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a great plaything", he replies, "the ambiguous meanings of language tumbling in their mouths like sweet treats". The author narrates the tale of Emma with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not precisely her dream."

Letdown and Fragmentation

I was fated to feel let down when I expected this fresh tone could continue through the novel. Kraus says here that she resents the satisfaction those who appreciate polished prose have derived from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to fragmentation, to the unpolished style she echoes from her inspiration Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her past books reasserts itself in the middle section. Catt is working on refurbishing 36 run-down apartments in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while shuttling between Minnesota and LA, unable to aid Paul curb his addiction. She experiences powerlessness as Paul moves between low-resource employment as an addiction therapist in a society driven by the anger and fear that powers Trump's victory. A significant portion discusses about the protagonist facing cancellation on a platform, her professional designation altered from "writer" to "landlord" on the online encyclopedia. She still gives the impression to be overly concerned about this. On one occasion she remarks that she's looking into the killing so that before departing the state, "she may grasp something about an America that her Twitter detractors would be unable to grasp, would overlook entirely".

The Homicide Account

So then we come to the actual killing – and the eponymous day passed by the victim with the killer and his friends. Kraus has compelling foundational content, and reconstructs step by step what transpired when Brandon came to visit Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she sold sex pictures. He was hoping for sex but appears congenially to have passed the day with her companions, loitering fixing his automobile and funding treats and narcotics, before being killed by gunfire by her romantic interest Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has repeatedly received inpatient care for violent rage.

Preoccupation and Open Ends

The protagonist becomes fixated by the account, and I found myself captivated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards ethical reporting and audacious rule-breaking tussle in this section. However, I would have preferred her to go further into her own obsessions here. The standout figure is Brittney, who comes alive in part due to Catt's identification with her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual derailing in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus tells us that Catt speaks to Brittney in jail, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The whole section feels curiously unresolved, to the point that her narrative ends almost mid-par