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The Four Spent the Day Together centers on characters pursuing new beginnings, attempting to leave behind drugs or toxic relationships, only to see hope turn into violence. The author repeatedly invokes the phrase "new beginning", rendering it deliberately jaded through its repetitions. Examples include "He could make a fresh start" and "They chose to begin anew" are scattered across the story. At the same time, she appears to be undertaking her own fresh start, because this seems a novel form of writing – fact-based, authentically narrative. Yet it reveals itself to be packed with the same dilemmas and styles as past novels.

From Unplanned Author to Iconic Work

Kraus began as an artist who entered the literary world almost accidentally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, which was composed of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, elevating intimate women's literature from abjection into defiance. She continued writing, but the following three compelling and abrasive novels missed the power and directness that the letter form infused into the voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her position as a maverick maker who had evolved into a major property owner, so there was much discussion on housing investments. It follows that she presently aims to try out fresh narrative sources, directing her gaze to the experiences of others, at a period in which she claims that current political era turns intimate literature redundant.

Multiple Generations, Collective Unavoidable Background

The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, covering three generations – each trapped by their pasts. The book includes the tale of Emma and Jasper, versions of the author's parents, transitioning from the Bronx to rural Connecticut. Additionally the story of Kraus herself, in the character of protagonist Catt Greene, reckoning with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse a man named Paul. And there is the narrative of a homicide of one directionless individual by another in a locality mostly forsaken by liberal ideals only a short distance from the protagonist's home in a remote part of Minnesota.

From my perspective as a reader attracted to polished prose of the sort the author herself often avoids, I was enchanted by the literary tone of the opening part.

As someone who reads who favors crafted language of the variety that Kraus usually avoids, I was seduced by the literary tone of the first section. It possesses a fresh level of observation that makes room for small details, like the container that the protagonist as a child pries out of frozen water at the opening of the book, aided by her cherished parent. "I found an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a nice toy", he responds, "the elliptical meanings of words rolling around in their mouths like sweet treats". The author narrates the tale of Emma with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not hers, exactly."

Disappointment and Disjunction

I was bound to become frustrated when I expected this fresh tone could persist to the end. The author states here that she is annoyed by the satisfaction audiences such as myself have taken from I Love Dick; she's committed to fragmentation, to the untidy aesthetics she echoes from her inspiration Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her earlier works returns in the second segment. Catt Greene is attempting to do up 36 run-down apartments in the city's most challenging districts while shuttling between two different states, failing to help Paul curb his addiction. She experiences powerlessness as her spouse cycles through underfunded jobs as an substance abuse counselor in a society fueled by the hostility and dread that drives Trump's victory. There are several pages about the protagonist facing cancellation on social media, her professional designation altered from "writer" to "property owner" on Wikipedia. She still gives the impression to care a little too much about this. At one point she says that she's investigating the murder so that before leaving Minnesota, "she might be able to learn something about an the nation that her Twitter detractors would not understand, would not even perceive".

The Murder Narrative

So then we come to the actual killing – and the eponymous day experienced by the deceased with the killer and his companions. The author possesses compelling foundational content, and reconstructs step by step what transpired when Brandon came to visit Brittney after meeting her on an app 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 boyfriend a man named Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has repeatedly received inpatient care for aggressive outbursts.

Obsession and Unfinished Business

The protagonist becomes fixated by the account, and I was intrigued by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards responsible documentation and reckless transgression clash in this segment. However, I would have preferred her to delve deeper into her individual preoccupations here. The compelling persona is Brittney herself, who becomes vivid partly through Catt seeing herself in her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman spiraling out of control in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus notes that Catt speaks to Brittney in jail, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The complete segment feels curiously unresolved, to the extent that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par