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The Four Spent the Day Together centers on individuals chasing after fresh starts, struggling to escape substance abuse or toxic relationships, only to see hope turn into conflict. The author often employs the phrase "new beginning", transforming it into deliberately jaded through recurring use. Examples include "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They chose to begin anew" are scattered across the narrative. Meanwhile, the author herself appears to be undertaking her personal new beginning, as this presents as a different type of work – documentarian, truly literary. Yet it proves to be packed with the recurring issues and aesthetics as earlier books.

From Unplanned Author to Iconic Work

Kraus was originally an visual artist who transitioned to writing unintentionally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, structured as epistles to an unresponsive love interest, converting intimate women's literature from self-debasement into rebellion. She kept producing books, but the next trio of fascinating and rebarbative novels did not possess the impact and rawness that the letter form infused into the narrative voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her position as a nonconformist creator who had evolved into a extensive real estate holder, so there was considerable focus on real estate deals. It makes sense that she now wants to explore new kinds of material, looking outwards to external narratives, at a period in which she claims that Trumpian politics turns intimate literature redundant.

Several Eras, Collective Unavoidable Background

The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, spanning three generations – all unable to escape their histories. We encounter the story of a couple named Emma and Jasper, representations of the author's parents, relocating from the New York borough to a pastoral setting. Then there is the story of Kraus herself, in the persona of Catt Greene, grappling with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her substance-dependent spouse a man named Paul. And there is the account of a killing of one lost young man by another in a locality largely deserted by progressive politics only a short distance from Catt's cottage in the Minnesota countryside.

For this reader fond of polished prose of the kind Kraus typically rejects, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the initial segment.

As a reader who favors crafted language of the style that the author usually avoids, I was won over by the novelistic voice of the opening segment. It possesses a fresh level of observation that allows space for trivial aspects, like the bucket that the young Catt frees from the ice at the opening of the book, aided by her adored dad. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she declares; "a great plaything", he responds, "the ambiguous meanings of language rolling around in their mouths like hard candy". She tells the tale of Emma with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not hers, exactly."

Frustration and Disruption

I was destined to be disappointed when I hoped this fresh tone could continue through the novel. Kraus says here that she resents the satisfaction audiences such as myself have taken from I Love Dick; she's committed to disjunction, to the untidy aesthetics she has in common with her idol writer Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her earlier works returns in the middle section. The protagonist is trying to renovate three dozen dilapidated units in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while shuttling between the Midwest and the West Coast, unsuccessful in assisting her husband control his drinking. She experiences powerlessness as Paul cycles through low-resource employment as an recovery specialist in a environment fueled by the rage and anxiety that drives Trump's victory. A significant portion discusses about Catt being cancelled on social media, her occupation changed from "novelist" to "real estate holder" on a reference site. She still gives the impression to care a little too much about this. At one point she says that she's looking into the killing so that before exiting the region, "she may grasp something about an the United States that her online critics would fail to comprehend, would overlook entirely".

The Homicide Account

Then we reach to the homicide in question – and the referenced day experienced by the murdered individual with the perpetrator and his companions. Kraus has excellent raw material, and knows hour by hour what happened when Brandon came to visit Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she marketed explicit images. He was hoping for sex but seems amiably to have occupied the day in the company of her associates, wandering about getting his car mended and funding treats and narcotics, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's partner Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has often been institutionalized for aggressive outbursts.

Obsession and Unfinished Business

Catt gets obsessed by the account, and I was intrigued by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards accurate chronicling and daring boundary-pushing clash in this segment. Yet I wished her to explore more thoroughly her own obsessions here. The most interesting character is Brittney, who becomes vivid partially because of the protagonist's connection to her – another bright, bullied girl going off the rails in a struggling, neglected community. The author informs us that Catt speaks to Brittney in prison, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. The complete segment feels strangely incomplete, to the degree that her narrative ends almost mid-par