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The Four Spent the Day Together centers on individuals chasing after clean slates, trying to break free from drugs or harmful partnerships, only to witness hope devolve into aggression. The author often employs the phrase "fresh start", making it willfully cynical through constant reiteration. Examples include "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They decided to make a fresh start" are scattered across the text. At the same time, the author herself appears to be undertaking her own fresh start, because this appears a new kind of book – observational, truly literary. However it reveals itself to be packed with the familiar conflicts and styles as past novels.

From Chance Novelist to Cult Classic

Kraus was originally an visual artist who became a writer unintentionally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, structured as letters to an unreceptive lover, transforming confessional female writing from humiliation into rebellion. She persisted as a writer, but the three subsequent fascinating and rebarbative novels did not possess the impact and rawness that the letter form brought to the tone of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her position as a maverick maker who had turned into a extensive real estate holder, so there was significant attention on housing investments. It follows that she presently aims to explore different types of content, looking outwards to external narratives, at a period in which she states that contemporary political climate turns intimate literature redundant.

Multiple Generations, Collective Unavoidable Background

The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, encompassing three generations – all unable to escape their pasts. There is the story of Emma and Jasper, based on Kraus's parents, relocating from the Bronx to rural Connecticut. There is the account of Kraus, in the character of a figure named Catt Greene, reckoning with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her partner struggling with addiction Paul. Finally the account of a killing of one lost young man by another in a locality long abandoned by progressive politics only a short distance from the protagonist's home in the Minnesota countryside.

For this reader attracted to honed writing of the sort the author herself often avoids, I was captivated by the literary tone of the first section.

Being a reader drawn to crafted language of the style that the author usually avoids, I was seduced by the literary tone of the first section. It exhibits a novel degree of detail that accommodates trivial aspects, like the pail that the young Catt pries out of frozen water at the start of the story, helped by her adored dad. "I found an ice toy!" she declares; "a nice toy", he answers, "the nuanced interpretations of terms circulating in their speech like sweet treats". She tells the tale of Emma with inquiry and familiarity. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not precisely her dream."

Letdown and Fragmentation

I was bound to become frustrated when I hoped this fresh tone could continue through the novel. Kraus notes here that she is annoyed by the satisfaction those who appreciate polished prose have derived from I Love Dick; she's committed to disruption, to the messy artistic approach she has in common with her hero author Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her earlier works comes back in the middle section. Catt Greene is working on refurbishing 36 run-down apartments in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while moving between the Midwest and the West Coast, failing to help Paul manage his alcohol use. She experiences powerlessness as Paul moves between underfunded jobs as an substance abuse counselor in a society propelled by the rage and anxiety that powers a political win. There are several pages about Catt's social media ostracism on Twitter, her occupation changed from "writer" to "landlord" on Wikipedia. Kraus still seems to be overly concerned about this. On one occasion she says that she's looking into the killing so that before departing the state, "she could potentially understand something about an the nation that her Twitter detractors would not understand, would overlook entirely".

The Killing Story

Thus we arrive to the murder itself – and the titular day passed by the victim with the murderer and his associates. Kraus has compelling foundational content, and reconstructs step by step what happened when Brandon came to see Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she marketed explicit images. He sought a sexual encounter but seems affably to have spent the day with her companions, wandering about having his vehicle repaired and funding treats and narcotics, before being killed by gunfire by her romantic interest Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has often been institutionalized for fits of anger.

Obsession and Unfinished Business

Catt develops an obsession by the narrative, and I was fascinated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards ethical reporting and audacious rule-breaking clash in this segment. Yet I wished her to go further into her individual preoccupations here. The most interesting character is Brittney herself, who gains dimension partly through Catt's identification with her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman spiraling out of control in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus notes that Catt converses with Brittney in prison, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The complete segment feels oddly unfinished, to the point that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par