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The Four Spent the Day Together centers on protagonists chasing after new beginnings, struggling to escape substance abuse or harmful partnerships, only to find hope curdling into conflict. Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "new beginning", transforming it into intentionally weary through its repetitions. Sentences like "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They chose to begin anew" recur in the story. Meanwhile, she seems to be making her own fresh start, because this seems a new kind of book – fact-based, authentically narrative. But then it turns out to be packed with the familiar conflicts and styles as earlier books.

From Chance Novelist to Renowned Book

Kraus started out as an artist who transitioned to writing almost accidentally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, structured as epistles to an unresponsive love interest, converting confessional female writing from abjection into rebellion. She persisted as a writer, but the next trio of engaging and challenging novels lacked the impact and rawness that the epistolary style brought to the narrative voice 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 much discussion on real estate deals. It is logical that she now wants to try out different types of content, turning outward to external narratives, at a period in which she states that current political era renders personal narrative unnecessary.

Several Eras, One Unescapable Past

The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, spanning three generations – each trapped by their pasts. The book includes the story of a couple named Emma and Jasper, representations of Kraus's parents, transitioning from the urban environment to a pastoral setting. There is the account of Kraus, in the guise of a figure named Catt Greene, grappling with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse Paul. Finally the story of the murder of one lost young man by another in a town largely deserted by progressive politics only 80 miles from Catt's rural residence in rural Minnesota.

From my perspective as a reader drawn to honed writing of the sort the author herself typically rejects, I was captivated by the literary tone of the opening part.

As someone who reads who appreciates honed writing of the style that Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the opening segment. It possesses a novel degree of detail that accommodates minutiae, like the bucket that the protagonist as a child pries out of frozen water at the opening of the book, aided 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". Kraus writes the tale of Emma with interest and closeness. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not entirely her own."

Letdown and Fragmentation

I was bound to become frustrated when I wished this different style could last out the book. Kraus says here that she is annoyed by the pleasure audiences such as myself have derived 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 central part. The protagonist is trying to renovate multiple decrepit residences in the city's most challenging districts while shuttling between Minnesota and LA, unsuccessful in assisting her husband manage his alcohol use. She is overwhelmed as Paul transitions between low-resource employment as an substance abuse counselor in a society driven by the anger and fear that powers Trump's victory. There are several pages about Catt's social media ostracism on social media, her listed profession modified from "author" to "property owner" on Wikipedia. She still gives the impression to be overly concerned about this. On one occasion she remarks that she's researching the homicide so that before departing the state, "she could potentially understand something about an the United States that her Twitter detractors would not understand, would not even perceive".

The Killing Story

Thus we arrive to the homicide in question – and the referenced day spent by the victim with the murderer and his friends. Kraus utilizes compelling foundational content, and reconstructs step by step what occurred as the victim Brandon came to meet Brittney after meeting her on an app where she marketed explicit images. He sought a sexual encounter but seems amiably to have occupied the day with her companions, loitering getting his car mended and funding treats and narcotics, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's partner Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has frequently been hospitalised for fits of anger.

Obsession and Unfinished Business

Catt gets obsessed by the narrative, and I found myself captivated by the way that her twin drives towards responsible documentation and reckless transgression clash in this segment. But I'd have liked her to delve deeper into her individual preoccupations here. The standout figure is the character Brittney, who becomes vivid partly through Catt seeing herself in her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual spiraling out of control in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus tells us that Catt speaks to Brittney in jail, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The complete segment feels strangely incomplete, to the degree that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par