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The Four Spent the Day Together features characters chasing after new beginnings, struggling to escape addictions or harmful partnerships, only to find hope curdling into conflict. Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "fresh start", making it deliberately jaded through recurring use. Examples include "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They opted for a clean break" are scattered across the text. And yet, Kraus herself appears to be undertaking her own fresh start, since this appears a different type of work – documentarian, genuinely novelistic. But then it reveals itself to be filled with the familiar conflicts and styles as her previous works.

From Accidental Writer to Renowned Book

Kraus started out as an visual artist who entered the literary world somewhat by chance with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, which was composed of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, elevating personal female narrative from humiliation into assassination. She kept producing books, but the following three engaging and challenging novels missed the power and directness that the epistolary style imparted to the tone of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her role as a nonconformist creator who had become a extensive real estate holder, so there was considerable focus on real estate deals. It makes sense that she now wants to experiment with fresh narrative sources, turning outward to external narratives, at a period in which she claims that contemporary political climate makes confessional writing obsolete.

Several Eras, One Unescapable Past

The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, encompassing multiple eras – each trapped by their pasts. The book includes the narrative about a couple named Emma and Jasper, representations of Kraus's parents, relocating from the New York borough to the Connecticut countryside. Then there is the narrative of the author, in the persona of Catt Greene, reckoning with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her substance-dependent spouse Paul. And there is the story of the murder of one lost young man by another in a locality long abandoned by forward-thinking policies only a short distance from the protagonist's home in rural Minnesota.

From my perspective as a reader drawn to refined literature of the type Kraus typically rejects, I was seduced by the narrative style of the initial segment.

Being a reader who appreciates precise prose of the kind that Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was seduced by the storytelling approach of the initial part. It possesses a novel degree of detail that allows space for small details, like the bucket that the young Catt frees from the ice at the start of the story, aided by her cherished parent. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she exclaims; "a great plaything", he responds, "the elliptical meanings of words circulating in their speech like hard candy". She tells Emma's narrative with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not precisely her dream."

Frustration and Disruption

I was fated to feel let down when I expected this new voice could continue through the novel. The author states here that she dislikes the pleasure those who appreciate polished prose have taken from I Love Dick; she's committed to disjunction, to the messy artistic approach she echoes from her inspiration Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her previous novels comes back in the central part. The protagonist is working on refurbishing multiple decrepit residences in the city's most challenging districts while shuttling between two different states, unable to aid her husband manage his alcohol use. She experiences powerlessness as Paul moves between low-resource employment as an substance abuse counselor in a environment propelled by the anger and fear that underpins Trump's victory. Multiple pages are devoted about the protagonist facing cancellation on social media, her professional designation altered from "novelist" to "property owner" on a reference site. Kraus still seems to care a little too much about this. At one point she states that she's investigating the murder so that before departing the state, "she could potentially understand something about an the nation that her social media opponents would not understand, would overlook entirely".

The Homicide Account

So then we come to the homicide in question – and the referenced day experienced by the murdered individual with the murderer and his associates. The author possesses compelling foundational content, and details moment by moment what occurred as the victim Brandon came to see Brittney after connecting via an application where she offered adult photos. He was hoping for sex but seems amiably to have occupied the day with her companions, wandering about having his vehicle repaired and covering the cost of food and substances, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has often been institutionalized for fits of anger.

Preoccupation and Open Ends

Catt gets obsessed by the narrative, and I found myself captivated by the way that her twin drives towards responsible documentation and reckless transgression tussle in this section. Yet I wished her to delve deeper into her personal fixations here. The compelling persona is Brittney herself, who comes alive in part due to Catt seeing herself in her – another bright, bullied girl derailing in a troubled, forgotten town. The author informs us that Catt speaks to Brittney in prison, but she fails to enact these dialogues. This entire part feels strangely incomplete, to the degree that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par