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The Four Spent the Day Together is populated with protagonists chasing after clean slates, attempting to leave behind drugs or harmful partnerships, only to see hope turn into conflict. Kraus frequently uses the phrase "new beginning", transforming it into intentionally weary through its repetitions. Sentences like "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They chose to begin anew" appear throughout the text. And yet, Kraus herself appears to be undertaking her own fresh start, as this appears a different type of work – observational, genuinely novelistic. Yet it reveals itself to be filled with the same dilemmas and approaches as earlier books.

From Accidental Writer to Cult Classic

Kraus began as an visual artist who transitioned to writing somewhat by chance with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, structured as missives to a distant beloved, transforming intimate women's literature from abjection into defiance. She kept producing books, but the three subsequent compelling and abrasive novels did not possess the impact and rawness that the letter form infused into the voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her identity as a maverick maker who had become a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was much discussion on real estate deals. It is logical that she currently desires to explore different types of content, turning outward to the experiences of others, at a period in which she asserts that Trumpian politics renders personal narrative redundant.

Multiple Generations, Shared Inescapable History

The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, covering multiple eras – each trapped by their histories. The book includes the tale of a couple named Emma and Jasper, versions of her own mother and father, moving from the urban environment to rural Connecticut. Then there is the story of Kraus herself, in the persona of protagonist Catt Greene, reckoning with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse Paul. The third thread involves the account of a killing of one lost young man by another in a locality mostly forsaken by progressive politics only a short distance from Catt's cottage in rural Minnesota.

From my perspective as a reader attracted to polished prose of the kind Kraus herself typically rejects, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the initial segment.

Being a reader who appreciates crafted language of the kind that the author tends to eschew, I was won over by the storytelling approach of the initial part. It exhibits a new quality of attentiveness that accommodates minutiae, like the pail that the young Catt dislodges from ice at the start of the story, helped by her adored dad. "I found an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a nice toy", he responds, "the nuanced interpretations of terms circulating in their speech like piece candy". The author narrates Emma's story with curiosity and intimacy. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not precisely her dream."

Disappointment and Disjunction

I was fated to feel let down when I expected this fresh tone could persist to the end. Kraus notes here that she dislikes the satisfaction readers like me have derived from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disruption, to the messy artistic approach she has in common with her inspiration Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her past books returns in the central part. Catt is attempting to do up three dozen dilapidated units in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while traveling between the Midwest and the West Coast, unsuccessful in assisting Paul curb his addiction. She is overwhelmed as her spouse transitions between low-resource employment as an substance abuse counselor in a society fueled by the hostility and dread that drives Trump's victory. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt being cancelled on Twitter, her professional designation altered from "author" to "real estate holder" on Wikipedia. The author still appears to invest excessive emotion about this. On one occasion she states that she's researching the homicide so that before exiting the region, "she may grasp something about an the nation that her online critics would be unable to grasp, would overlook entirely".

The Homicide Account

So then we come to the homicide in question – and the referenced day passed by the deceased with the murderer and his friends. Kraus utilizes compelling foundational content, and knows hour by hour what happened when Brandon came to meet Brittney after meeting her on an app where she offered adult photos. He was hoping for sex but seems affably to have spent the day in the company of her associates, wandering about fixing his automobile and covering the cost of food and substances, before being shot by Brittney's partner Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has often been institutionalized for aggressive outbursts.

Preoccupation and Open Ends

Catt develops an obsession by the story, and I was fascinated by the way that her twin drives towards ethical reporting and audacious rule-breaking clash in this segment. But I'd have liked her to delve deeper into her individual preoccupations here. The standout figure is Brittney, who becomes vivid partially because of the protagonist's connection to her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman spiraling out of control in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus notes that Catt speaks to Brittney in jail, but she fails to enact these dialogues. This entire part feels oddly unfinished, to the extent that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par