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The Four Spent the Day Together centers on individuals pursuing new beginnings, struggling to escape substance abuse or harmful partnerships, only to see hope turn into conflict. The author often employs the phrase "fresh start", making it intentionally weary through constant reiteration. Sentences like "He aimed to start over" and "They decided to make a fresh start" recur in the story. Meanwhile, Kraus herself seems to be making her individual reinvention, as this presents as a novel form of writing – fact-based, genuinely novelistic. Yet it proves to be packed with the recurring issues and approaches as earlier books.

From Accidental Writer to Iconic Work

Kraus began as an creative who became a writer almost accidentally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, made up of letters to an unreceptive lover, elevating intimate women's literature from humiliation into assassination. She persisted as a writer, but the next trio of engaging and challenging novels lacked the power and directness that the letter form infused into the voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her position as a maverick maker who had become a extensive real estate holder, so there was considerable focus on real estate deals. It makes sense that she currently desires to explore new kinds of material, turning outward to other people's stories, at a moment when she asserts that Trumpian politics turns intimate literature redundant.

Three Generations, Collective Unavoidable Background

The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, covering several time periods – none able to break free from their pasts. We encounter the narrative about characters Emma and Jasper, versions of Kraus's parents, relocating from the New York borough to rural Connecticut. Additionally the account of Kraus, in the persona of a figure named Catt Greene, reckoning with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction her husband Paul. Finally the account of a killing of one troubled youth by another in a locality long abandoned by forward-thinking policies only a brief drive from the protagonist's home in the Minnesota countryside.

For this reader fond of honed writing of the type the author herself typically rejects, I was enchanted by the literary tone of the initial segment.

As someone who reads who favors honed writing of the style that Kraus herself usually avoids, I was captivated by the literary tone of the first section. There is a novel degree of detail that makes room for trivial aspects, like the bucket that the protagonist as a child dislodges from ice at the opening of the book, helped by her cherished parent. "Look, an ice toy!" she declares; "a nice toy", he answers, "the elliptical meanings of words circulating in their speech like hard candy". She tells Emma's narrative with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not hers, exactly."

Disappointment and Disjunction

I was bound to become frustrated when I wished this different style could persist to the end. Kraus notes here that she dislikes the satisfaction readers like me have derived from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disruption, to the unpolished style she has in common with her idol Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her previous novels returns in the central part. Catt is attempting to do up 36 run-down apartments in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while moving between the Midwest and the West Coast, unsuccessful in assisting her husband control his drinking. She feels helpless as Paul cycles through low-resource employment as an substance abuse counselor in a society driven by the rage and anxiety that underpins a political win. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt being cancelled on a platform, her listed profession modified from "writer" to "landlord" on Wikipedia. Kraus still seems to be overly concerned about this. On one occasion she remarks that she's investigating the murder so that before exiting the region, "she might be able to learn something about an America that her social media opponents would not understand, would not even perceive".

The Murder Narrative

Then we reach to the actual killing – and the titular day experienced by the deceased with the murderer and his associates. Kraus utilizes excellent raw material, and knows hour by hour what occurred as the victim Brandon came to visit Brittney after meeting her on an app where she marketed explicit images. He sought a sexual encounter but appears congenially to have passed the day with her companions, wandering about fixing his automobile and covering the cost of food and substances, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's partner Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has repeatedly received inpatient care for violent rage.

Preoccupation and Open Ends

Catt gets obsessed by the story, and I was intrigued by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards accurate chronicling and audacious rule-breaking tussle in this section. However, I would have preferred her to explore more thoroughly her own obsessions here. The standout figure is Brittney, who comes alive in part due to Catt's identification with her – another bright, bullied girl derailing in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus tells us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in detention, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The whole section feels curiously unresolved, to the degree that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par