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The Four Spent the Day Together centers on protagonists chasing after fresh starts, attempting to leave behind substance abuse or toxic relationships, only to witness hope devolve into conflict. The author often employs the phrase "fresh start", transforming it into intentionally weary through constant reiteration. Sentences like "He aimed to start over" and "They opted for a clean break" are scattered across the story. At the same time, Kraus herself seems to be making her personal new beginning, since this seems a different type of work – fact-based, authentically narrative. However it turns out to be laden with the same dilemmas and aesthetics as past novels.

From Chance Novelist to Iconic Work

Kraus began as an artist who became a writer unintentionally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, which was composed of letters to an unreceptive lover, transforming intimate women's literature from humiliation into assassination. She persisted as a writer, but the three subsequent compelling and abrasive novels missed the shock and immediacy that the correspondence format brought to the voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her position as a renegade artist who had become a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was much discussion on real estate deals. It is logical that she presently aims to try out fresh narrative sources, looking outwards to the experiences of others, at a period in which she claims that current political era makes confessional writing redundant.

Multiple Generations, One Unescapable Past

The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, spanning several time periods – none able to break free from their backgrounds. The book includes the tale of Emma and Jasper, based on her own mother and father, relocating from the New York borough to the Connecticut countryside. There is the narrative of the author, in the guise of Catt Greene, grappling with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her partner struggling with addiction a man named Paul. Finally the narrative of a homicide of one lost young man by another in a community mostly forsaken by liberal ideals only a short distance from Catt's cottage in rural Minnesota.

As a reader drawn to refined literature of the type Kraus herself typically rejects, I was captivated by the narrative style of the initial segment.

As someone who reads who favors honed writing of the variety that Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was seduced by the literary tone of the first section. It exhibits a new quality of attentiveness that allows space for trivial aspects, like the pail that the youthful Catt pries out of frozen water at the opening of the book, helped by her beloved father. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she declares; "a lovely toy", he replies, "the elliptical meanings of words circulating in their speech like hard candy". Kraus writes Emma's story with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not hers, exactly."

Disappointment and Disjunction

I was destined to be disappointed when I wished this new voice could last out the book. The author states here that she resents the satisfaction audiences such as myself have taken from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to fragmentation, to the untidy aesthetics she has in common with her hero author Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her previous novels comes back in the second segment. Catt is trying to renovate multiple decrepit residences in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while shuttling between two different states, unable to aid Paul curb his addiction. She feels helpless as Paul cycles through poorly supported positions as an recovery specialist in a environment driven by the rage and anxiety that underpins an electoral success. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt's social media ostracism on a platform, her occupation changed from "writer" to "landlord" on Wikipedia. She still gives the impression to invest excessive emotion about this. On one occasion she states that she's researching the homicide so that before leaving Minnesota, "she might be able to learn something about an the nation that her social media opponents would be unable to grasp, would overlook entirely".

The Homicide Account

So then we come to the homicide in question – and the titular day experienced by the murdered individual with the perpetrator and his companions. The author possesses great source material, and details moment by moment what happened when a man named Brandon came to see Brittney after connecting via an application where she marketed explicit images. He sought a sexual encounter but appears congenially to have passed the day alongside her friends, wandering about fixing his automobile and funding treats and narcotics, before being shot by Brittney's partner a man named Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has frequently been hospitalised for aggressive outbursts.

Preoccupation and Open Ends

Catt develops an obsession by the account, and I was fascinated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards accurate chronicling and daring boundary-pushing wrestle in this part. Yet I wished her to go further into her own obsessions here. The compelling persona is the character Brittney, who becomes vivid partially because of Catt's identification with her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman going off the rails in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus notes that Catt speaks to Brittney in detention, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The complete segment feels strangely incomplete, to the degree that her narrative ends almost mid-par