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The Four Spent the Day Together centers on characters seeking new beginnings, trying to break free from addictions or abusive marriages, only to witness hope devolve into violence. Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "fresh start", making it deliberately jaded through its repetitions. Phrases such as "He aimed to start over" and "They chose to begin anew" are scattered across the narrative. At the same time, Kraus herself seems to be making her individual reinvention, as this presents as a novel form of writing – fact-based, authentically narrative. But then it reveals itself to be filled with the recurring issues and styles as her previous works.

From Unplanned Author to Iconic Work

Kraus was originally an creative who transitioned to writing almost accidentally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, structured as epistles to an unresponsive love interest, transforming confessional female writing from abjection into assassination. She persisted as a writer, but the three subsequent engaging and challenging novels missed the shock and immediacy that the correspondence format infused into the tone of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her identity as a maverick maker who had become a major property owner, so there was considerable focus on real estate deals. It is logical that she presently aims to experiment with new kinds of material, looking outwards to external narratives, at a time when she states that contemporary political climate makes confessional writing redundant.

Three Generations, Collective Unavoidable Background

The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, covering several time periods – each trapped by their pasts. There is the tale of characters Emma and Jasper, based on Kraus's parents, relocating from the Bronx to the Connecticut countryside. There is the story of Kraus herself, in the persona of protagonist Catt Greene, confronting the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her substance-dependent spouse her husband Paul. The third thread involves the account of a killing of one troubled youth by another in a community largely deserted by liberal ideals only a brief drive from the protagonist's home in a remote part of Minnesota.

As a reader fond of honed writing of the sort the author herself tends to eschew, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the initial segment.

As someone who reads who favors precise prose 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 allows space for minutiae, like the container that the protagonist as a child pries out of frozen water at the beginning of the narrative, assisted by her beloved father. "I found an ice toy!" she declares; "a nice toy", he replies, "the nuanced interpretations of terms rolling around in their mouths like sweet treats". The author narrates the tale of Emma with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not hers, exactly."

Frustration and Disruption

I was destined to be disappointed when I hoped this new voice could continue through the novel. The author states here that she dislikes the satisfaction those who appreciate polished prose have gotten from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disruption, to the messy artistic approach she echoes from her idol Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her previous novels reasserts itself in the second segment. Catt Greene is working on refurbishing 36 run-down apartments in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while traveling between two different states, failing to help Paul curb his addiction. She is overwhelmed as her spouse moves between low-resource employment as an addiction therapist in a world fueled by the hostility and dread that underpins a political win. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt's social media ostracism on social media, her occupation changed from "novelist" to "property owner" on Wikipedia. She still gives the impression 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 online critics would not understand, would not even see".

The Killing Story

Thus we arrive to the homicide in question – and the titular day spent by the deceased with the killer and his friends. Kraus has compelling foundational content, and knows hour by hour what happened when a man named Brandon came to visit Brittney after connecting via an application where she offered adult photos. He anticipated intimacy but appears congenially to have passed the day with her companions, loitering fixing his automobile and paying for snacks and drugs, before being shot by Brittney's partner Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has repeatedly received inpatient care for fits of anger.

Preoccupation and Open Ends

Catt gets obsessed by the narrative, and I was intrigued by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards ethical reporting and daring boundary-pushing tussle in this section. But I'd have liked her to delve deeper into her individual preoccupations here. The standout figure is Brittney, who becomes vivid in part due to the protagonist's connection to her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual spiraling out of control in a struggling, neglected community. The author informs us that Catt converses with Brittney in detention, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The complete segment feels oddly unfinished, to the extent that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par