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The Four Spent the Day Together features characters pursuing new beginnings, trying to break free from addictions or abusive marriages, only to find hope curdling into conflict. The author repeatedly invokes the phrase "new beginning", making it intentionally weary through recurring use. Phrases such as "He could make a fresh start" and "They decided to make a fresh start" appear throughout the text. At the same time, Kraus herself seems to be making her own fresh start, as this seems a novel form of writing – documentarian, truly literary. Yet it turns out to be laden with the familiar conflicts and styles as her previous works.

From Accidental Writer to Renowned Book

Kraus began as an creative who entered the literary world somewhat by chance with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, which was composed of letters to an unreceptive lover, converting confessional female writing from humiliation into defiance. She kept producing books, but the next trio of engaging and challenging novels did not possess the power and directness that the letter form infused into the narrative voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her role as a nonconformist creator who had turned into a major property owner, so there was significant attention on housing investments. It is logical that she currently desires to experiment with fresh narrative sources, turning outward to external narratives, at a period in which she asserts that contemporary political climate renders personal narrative unnecessary.

Three Generations, Shared Inescapable History

The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, encompassing several time periods – all unable to escape their pasts. The book includes the story of characters Emma and Jasper, versions of Kraus's parents, transitioning from the Bronx to a pastoral setting. Additionally the story of Kraus herself, in the character of protagonist Catt Greene, reckoning with the belated success of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her substance-dependent spouse her husband Paul. Finally the narrative of a homicide of one directionless individual by another in a town long abandoned by liberal ideals only 80 miles from Catt's rural residence in rural Minnesota.

From my perspective as a reader drawn to refined literature of the sort Kraus often avoids, I was enchanted by the narrative style of the first section.

Being a reader who favors crafted language of the variety that the author tends to eschew, I was captivated by the literary tone of the initial part. It possesses a new quality of attentiveness that accommodates small details, like the bucket that the young Catt dislodges from ice at the opening of the book, helped by her adored dad. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she declares; "a nice toy", he answers, "the nuanced interpretations of terms rolling around in their mouths like piece candy". She tells Emma's story with inquiry and familiarity. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not hers, exactly."

Letdown and Fragmentation

I was bound to become frustrated when I wished this fresh tone could continue through the novel. The author states here that she dislikes the satisfaction readers like me have taken from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disjunction, to the unpolished style she has in common with her idol author Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her previous novels reasserts itself in the second segment. The protagonist is working on refurbishing multiple decrepit residences in the city's most challenging districts while traveling between the Midwest and the West Coast, unable to aid her husband manage his alcohol use. She feels helpless as Paul transitions between low-resource employment as an substance abuse counselor in a environment fueled by the rage and anxiety that powers an electoral success. A significant portion discusses about Catt's social media ostracism on a platform, her listed profession modified from "novelist" to "real estate holder" on Wikipedia. Kraus still seems to care a little too much about this. On one occasion she states that she's investigating the murder so that before exiting the region, "she might be able to learn something about an America that her Twitter detractors would not understand, would overlook entirely".

The Homicide Account

Thus we arrive to the actual killing – and the referenced day spent by the murdered individual with the killer and his friends. Kraus has great source material, and knows hour by hour what transpired when the victim Brandon came to meet Brittney after meeting her on an app where she marketed explicit images. He anticipated intimacy but appears congenially to have passed the day in the company of her associates, wandering about fixing his automobile and paying for snacks and drugs, before being murdered by Brittney's boyfriend a man named Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has often been institutionalized for violent rage.

Preoccupation and Open Ends

Catt gets obsessed by the story, and I was fascinated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards accurate chronicling and reckless transgression clash in this segment. Yet I wished her to explore more thoroughly her personal fixations here. The compelling persona is Brittney herself, who becomes vivid in part due to Catt's identification with her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman spiraling out of control in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus tells us that Catt speaks to Brittney in detention, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. The complete segment feels curiously unresolved, to the degree that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par