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The Four Spent the Day Together centers on protagonists pursuing fresh starts, attempting to leave behind substance abuse or abusive marriages, only to find hope curdling into aggression. Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "new beginning", rendering it willfully cynical through its repetitions. Examples include "He could make a fresh start" and "They decided to make a fresh start" are scattered across the story. And yet, the author herself appears to be undertaking her personal new beginning, because this presents as a novel form of writing – fact-based, genuinely novelistic. However it reveals itself to be laden with the same dilemmas and approaches as earlier books.

From Chance Novelist to Cult Classic

Kraus was originally an artist who entered the literary world almost accidentally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, structured as epistles to an unresponsive love interest, elevating confessional female writing from abjection into assassination. She continued writing, but the three subsequent fascinating and rebarbative novels did not possess the power and directness that the epistolary style imparted to the voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her role as a maverick maker who had turned into a major property owner, so there was much discussion on housing investments. It makes sense that she currently desires to experiment with fresh narrative sources, looking outwards to other people's stories, at a period in which she asserts that Trumpian politics turns intimate literature obsolete.

Multiple Generations, One Unescapable Past

The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, covering multiple eras – each trapped by their pasts. The book includes the tale of characters Emma and Jasper, based on Kraus's parents, transitioning from the Bronx to the Connecticut countryside. Then there is the story of Kraus herself, in the character of a figure named Catt Greene, confronting the late recognition of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her addict husband Paul. Finally the narrative of a homicide of one troubled youth by another in a locality long abandoned by liberal ideals only a short distance from Catt's cottage in the Minnesota countryside.

From my perspective as a reader drawn to refined literature of the type the author herself often avoids, I was seduced by the narrative style of the opening part.

Being a reader who favors precise prose of the variety that Kraus usually avoids, I was seduced by the storytelling approach of the opening segment. It exhibits a fresh level of observation that accommodates minutiae, like the container that the protagonist as a child frees from the ice at the beginning of the narrative, assisted by her adored dad. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she declares; "a lovely toy", he responds, "the nuanced interpretations of terms tumbling in their mouths like sweet treats". She tells Emma's story with interest and closeness. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not entirely her own."

Disappointment and Disjunction

I was fated to feel let down when I hoped this fresh tone could last out the book. Kraus says here that she dislikes the enjoyment those who appreciate polished prose have gotten from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disruption, to the messy artistic approach she echoes from her hero Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her previous novels returns in the middle section. Catt is working on refurbishing three dozen dilapidated units in the city's most challenging districts while shuttling between the Midwest and the West Coast, unable to aid Paul manage his alcohol use. She is overwhelmed as Paul cycles through poorly supported positions as an substance abuse counselor in a society driven by the rage and anxiety that powers a political win. A significant portion discusses about Catt being cancelled on a platform, her occupation changed from "writer" to "property owner" on Wikipedia. The author still appears to care a little too much about this. At one point she says that she's researching the homicide so that before departing the state, "she may grasp something about an America that her online critics would be unable to grasp, would not even see".

The Killing Story

Thus we arrive to the actual killing – and the eponymous day spent by the deceased with the killer and his associates. Kraus utilizes compelling foundational content, and reconstructs step by step what transpired when a man named Brandon came to meet 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, loitering having his vehicle repaired and covering the cost of food and substances, before being murdered by Brittney's partner Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has often been institutionalized for fits of anger.

Fascination and Incompletion

Catt gets obsessed by the narrative, and I was intrigued by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards ethical reporting and audacious rule-breaking tussle in this section. However, I would have preferred her to delve deeper into her personal fixations here. The compelling persona is Brittney, who becomes vivid in part due to the protagonist's connection to her – another bright, bullied girl spiraling out of control in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus tells us that Catt speaks to Brittney in jail, but she fails to enact these dialogues. This entire part feels strangely incomplete, to the degree that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par