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The Four Spent the Day Together features individuals seeking clean slates, struggling to escape substance abuse or abusive marriages, only to see hope turn into violence. Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "fresh start", rendering it deliberately jaded through constant reiteration. Examples include "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They chose to begin anew" appear throughout the text. And yet, the author herself appears to be undertaking her own fresh start, because this appears a new kind of book – fact-based, truly literary. Yet it proves to be laden with the familiar conflicts and styles as past novels.

From Chance Novelist to Iconic Work

The writer started out as an artist who transitioned to writing unintentionally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, made up of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, transforming confessional female writing from humiliation into assassination. She kept producing books, but the next trio of compelling and abrasive novels lacked the shock and immediacy that the epistolary style brought to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her position as a maverick maker who had evolved into a major property owner, so there was significant attention on property transactions. It follows that she presently aims to try out different types of content, turning outward to the experiences of others, at a moment when she claims that contemporary political climate renders personal narrative unnecessary.

Several Eras, One Unescapable Past

The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, spanning several time periods – none able to break free from their histories. There is the narrative about Emma and Jasper, versions of her own mother and father, transitioning from the urban environment to rural Connecticut. Additionally the narrative of the author, in the persona of Catt Greene, confronting the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction her husband Paul. And there is the story of the murder of one lost young man by another in a town mostly forsaken by liberal ideals only a brief drive from Catt's cottage in the Minnesota countryside.

From my perspective as a reader attracted to refined literature of the kind Kraus typically rejects, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the initial segment.

As someone who reads who favors honed writing of the kind that Kraus herself often disregards, I was seduced by the storytelling approach of the first section. It exhibits a new quality of attentiveness that accommodates small details, like the pail that the young Catt dislodges from ice at the start of the story, assisted by her adored dad. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she says; "a nice toy", he answers, "the elliptical meanings of words rolling around in their mouths like hard candy". She tells Emma's narrative with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not precisely her dream."

Disappointment and Disjunction

I was bound to become frustrated when I hoped this fresh tone could last out the book. Kraus says here that she dislikes the satisfaction readers like me have taken from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to fragmentation, to the unpolished style she has in common with her idol author Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her past books returns in the second segment. The protagonist is attempting to do up three dozen dilapidated units in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while moving between Minnesota and LA, unable to aid Paul control his drinking. She feels helpless as Paul transitions between low-resource employment as an recovery specialist in a world driven by the rage and anxiety that underpins Trump's victory. A significant portion discusses about the protagonist facing cancellation on Twitter, her professional designation altered from "author" to "real estate holder" on a reference site. The author still appears to care a little too much about this. At one point she remarks that she's looking into the killing so that before departing the state, "she could potentially understand something about an America that her Twitter detractors would be unable to grasp, would not even perceive".

The Homicide Account

Then we reach to the murder itself – and the titular day spent by the victim with the killer and his companions. Kraus utilizes compelling foundational content, and knows hour by hour what occurred as the victim Brandon came to visit Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she offered adult photos. He anticipated intimacy but seems amiably to have occupied the day with her companions, mooching around fixing his automobile and covering the cost of food and substances, before being murdered by her romantic interest Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has frequently been hospitalised for fits of anger.

Preoccupation and Open Ends

Catt develops an obsession by the story, and I was fascinated by the way that her twin drives towards ethical reporting and reckless transgression wrestle in this part. Yet I wished her to explore more thoroughly her personal fixations here. The most interesting character is Brittney herself, who becomes vivid partly through the protagonist's connection to her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman spiraling out of control in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus notes that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in detention, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. The whole section feels oddly unfinished, to the point that her narrative ends almost mid-par