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The Four Spent the Day Together is populated with protagonists pursuing fresh starts, struggling to escape drugs or abusive marriages, only to witness hope devolve into aggression. The author repeatedly invokes the phrase "new beginning", rendering it intentionally weary through constant reiteration. Sentences like "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They decided to make a fresh start" recur in the narrative. At the same time, Kraus herself is embarking on her own fresh start, as this seems a different type of work – documentarian, authentically narrative. However it proves to be laden with the same dilemmas and approaches as past novels.

From Accidental Writer to Iconic Work

Kraus was originally an artist who became a writer unintentionally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, made up of letters to an unreceptive lover, elevating personal female narrative from self-debasement into assassination. She continued writing, but the three subsequent compelling and abrasive novels did not possess the power and directness that the letter form imparted to the tone of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her role as a nonconformist creator who had turned into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was significant attention on property transactions. It is logical that she presently aims to explore different types of content, looking outwards to the experiences of others, at a period in which she claims that contemporary political climate renders personal narrative redundant.

Three Generations, Shared Inescapable History

The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, covering multiple eras – each trapped by their pasts. We encounter the narrative about a couple named Emma and Jasper, versions of Kraus's parents, relocating from the urban environment to rural Connecticut. There is the account of Kraus, in the character of a figure named Catt Greene, confronting the belated success of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her addict husband Paul. And there is the narrative of a homicide of one troubled youth by another in a town largely deserted by forward-thinking policies only a short distance from Catt's rural residence in the Minnesota countryside.

As a reader fond of refined literature of the sort Kraus often avoids, I was captivated by the narrative style of the initial segment.

Being a reader who favors crafted language of the style that Kraus herself often disregards, I was won over by the storytelling approach of the initial part. It exhibits a fresh level of observation that accommodates minutiae, like the pail that the youthful Catt dislodges from ice at the opening of the book, assisted by her adored dad. "I found an ice toy!" she declares; "a great plaything", he responds, "the nuanced interpretations of terms rolling around in their mouths like piece candy". Kraus writes Emma's narrative with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not precisely her dream."

Frustration and Disruption

I was bound to become frustrated when I hoped this different style could continue through the novel. Kraus says here that she is annoyed by the enjoyment readers like me have gotten from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disruption, to the messy artistic approach she shares with her inspiration author Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her previous novels comes back in the central part. Catt Greene is attempting to do up 36 run-down apartments in the city's most challenging districts while shuttling between the Midwest and the West Coast, failing to help Paul curb his addiction. She feels helpless as her spouse cycles through poorly supported positions as an substance abuse counselor in a environment fueled by the anger and fear that drives a political win. A significant portion discusses about Catt being cancelled on social media, her listed profession modified from "author" to "property owner" on Wikipedia. Kraus still seems 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 may grasp something about an America that her social media opponents would fail to comprehend, would overlook entirely".

The Killing Story

So then we come to the homicide in question – and the eponymous day spent by the deceased with the killer and his associates. Kraus has compelling foundational content, and details moment by moment what happened when a man named Brandon came to see Brittney after connecting via an application where she offered adult photos. He sought a sexual encounter but seems amiably to have occupied the day in the company of her associates, mooching around having his vehicle repaired and paying for snacks and drugs, before being murdered by her romantic interest a man named Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has repeatedly received inpatient care for violent rage.

Obsession and Unfinished Business

The protagonist becomes fixated by the story, and I found myself captivated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards responsible documentation and audacious rule-breaking tussle in this section. However, I would have preferred her to delve deeper into her own obsessions here. The most interesting character is Brittney, who becomes vivid partly through Catt seeing herself in her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman derailing in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus notes that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in detention, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The whole section feels curiously unresolved, to the point that her narrative ends almost mid-par