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The Four Spent the Day Together features individuals seeking clean slates, trying to break free from substance abuse or harmful partnerships, only to witness hope devolve into violence. The author often employs the phrase "fresh start", making it willfully cynical through its repetitions. Sentences like "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They opted for a clean break" recur in the story. Meanwhile, the author herself seems to be making her individual reinvention, as this presents as a novel form of writing – documentarian, genuinely novelistic. However it proves to be laden with the same dilemmas and styles as her previous works.

From Unplanned Author to Cult Classic

Kraus started out as an artist who entered the literary world somewhat by chance with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, which was composed of missives to a distant beloved, converting personal female narrative from humiliation into defiance. She persisted as a writer, but the next trio of fascinating and rebarbative novels missed the shock and immediacy that the letter form imparted to the tone of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her role as a maverick maker who had turned into a major property owner, so there was considerable focus on real estate deals. It follows that she now wants to experiment with different types of content, looking outwards to other people's stories, at a period in which she asserts that Trumpian politics makes confessional writing obsolete.

Several Eras, One Unescapable Past

The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, covering several time periods – none able to break free from their histories. We encounter the tale of Emma and Jasper, versions of Kraus's parents, moving from the New York borough to rural Connecticut. Additionally the story of Kraus herself, in the guise of a figure named Catt Greene, grappling with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse Paul. The third thread involves the narrative of a homicide of one directionless individual by another in a community long abandoned by progressive politics only a brief drive from Catt's rural residence in the Minnesota countryside.

For this reader attracted to honed writing of the kind Kraus often avoids, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the initial segment.

As a reader drawn to precise prose of the kind that Kraus tends to eschew, I was seduced by the storytelling approach of the first section. It possesses a novel degree of detail that allows space for small details, like the bucket that the young Catt dislodges from ice at the opening of the book, assisted by her adored dad. "Look, an ice toy!" she declares; "a lovely toy", he replies, "the elliptical meanings of words rolling around in their mouths like sweet treats". The author narrates the tale of Emma with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not entirely her own."

Disappointment and Disjunction

I was bound to become frustrated when I hoped this fresh tone could last out the book. Kraus notes here that she dislikes the enjoyment readers like me have gotten from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disjunction, to the messy artistic approach she echoes from her idol author Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her previous novels comes back in the central part. Catt is trying to renovate 36 run-down apartments in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while moving between Minnesota and LA, unable to aid Paul curb his addiction. She is overwhelmed as Paul cycles through underfunded jobs as an recovery specialist in a society propelled by the anger and fear that drives Trump's victory. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt being cancelled on Twitter, her listed profession modified from "writer" to "landlord" on the online encyclopedia. Kraus still seems to invest excessive emotion about this. At one point she states that she's investigating the murder so that before departing the state, "she might be able to learn something about an the nation that her online critics would be unable to grasp, would not even perceive".

The Murder Narrative

So then we come to the murder itself – and the titular day passed by the deceased with the perpetrator and his associates. The author possesses great source material, and reconstructs step by step what occurred as the victim Brandon came to see Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she offered adult photos. He anticipated intimacy but seems affably to have spent the day alongside her friends, wandering about having his vehicle repaired and paying for snacks and drugs, before being murdered by Brittney's partner a man named Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has frequently been hospitalised for aggressive outbursts.

Preoccupation and Open Ends

The protagonist becomes fixated by the story, and I was fascinated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards accurate chronicling and reckless transgression wrestle in this part. Yet I wished her to delve deeper into her individual preoccupations here. The compelling persona is the character Brittney, who comes alive partially because of Catt seeing herself in her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman spiraling out of control in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus notes that Catt converses with Brittney in detention, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. This entire part feels strangely incomplete, to the extent that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par