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The Four Spent the Day Together features protagonists pursuing new beginnings, struggling to escape addictions or harmful partnerships, only to witness hope devolve into aggression. The author repeatedly invokes the phrase "fresh start", transforming it into deliberately jaded through recurring use. Sentences like "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They chose to begin anew" appear throughout the text. At the same time, Kraus herself is embarking on her personal new beginning, because this seems a novel form of writing – observational, truly literary. But then it turns out to be filled with the recurring issues and aesthetics as her previous works.

From Chance Novelist to Iconic Work

Kraus started out as an visual artist who transitioned to writing almost accidentally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, which was composed of missives to a distant beloved, transforming confessional female writing from humiliation into assassination. She continued writing, but the next trio of fascinating and rebarbative novels did not possess the impact and rawness that the epistolary style brought to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her position as a renegade artist who had turned into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was considerable focus on housing investments. It makes sense that she presently aims to explore different types of content, looking outwards to other people's stories, at a period in which she states that contemporary political climate makes confessional writing obsolete.

Three Generations, Collective Unavoidable Background

The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, spanning three generations – all unable to escape their histories. We encounter the tale of Emma and Jasper, representations of the author's parents, relocating from the Bronx to a pastoral setting. Then there is the account of Kraus, in the character of protagonist Catt Greene, grappling with the belated success of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her addict husband Paul. Finally the account of a killing of one troubled youth by another in a community largely deserted by progressive politics only 80 miles from the protagonist's home in a remote part of Minnesota.

As a reader attracted to refined literature of the type the author herself often avoids, I was seduced by the literary tone of the first section.

As a reader who appreciates honed writing of the kind that the author usually avoids, I was seduced by the literary tone of the first section. There is a fresh level of observation that allows space for small details, like the container that the protagonist as a child dislodges from ice at the start of the story, helped by her adored dad. "I found an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a lovely toy", he responds, "the nuanced interpretations of terms tumbling in their mouths like sweet treats". Kraus writes the tale of Emma with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not entirely her own."

Frustration and Disruption

I was bound to become frustrated when I wished this different style could continue through the novel. Kraus says here that she resents the pleasure audiences such as myself have taken from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disjunction, to the unpolished style she has in common with her inspiration author Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her previous novels comes back in the second segment. Catt is attempting to do up multiple decrepit residences in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while shuttling between the Midwest and the West Coast, unable to aid Paul curb his addiction. She experiences powerlessness as her spouse moves between poorly supported positions as an substance abuse counselor in a society driven by the anger and fear that underpins a political win. There are several pages about Catt's social media ostracism on social media, her professional designation altered from "writer" to "property owner" on the online encyclopedia. She still gives the impression to invest excessive emotion about this. In a moment she states that she's researching the homicide so that before exiting the region, "she could potentially understand something about an the United States that her Twitter detractors would not understand, would not even perceive".

The Killing Story

Then we reach to the actual killing – and the eponymous day spent by the victim with the perpetrator and his associates. The author possesses excellent raw material, and details moment by moment what occurred as a man named Brandon came to see Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she sold sex pictures. He anticipated intimacy but seems affably to have spent the day in the company of her associates, wandering about fixing his automobile and funding treats and narcotics, before being killed by gunfire by her romantic interest Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has often been institutionalized 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 accurate chronicling and reckless transgression clash in this segment. Yet I wished her to go further into her personal fixations here. The standout figure is Brittney herself, who becomes vivid partially because of Catt's identification with her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual going off the rails in a difficult, overlooked locality. The author informs us that Catt converses with Brittney in detention, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The complete segment feels strangely incomplete, to the point that her narrative ends almost mid-par