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The Four Spent the Day Together centers on protagonists chasing after fresh starts, struggling to escape substance abuse or toxic relationships, only to find hope curdling into conflict. Kraus often employs the phrase "clean slate", transforming it into willfully cynical through its repetitions. Examples include "He aimed to start over" and "They decided to make a fresh start" appear throughout the story. And yet, she appears to be undertaking her own fresh start, since this seems a novel form of writing – fact-based, authentically narrative. But then it reveals itself to be packed with the recurring issues and approaches as earlier books.

From Unplanned Author to Cult Classic

The writer began as an visual artist who became a writer unintentionally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, which was composed of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, elevating confessional female writing from humiliation into assassination. She continued writing, but the following three fascinating and rebarbative novels did not possess the power and directness that the epistolary style infused into the narrative voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her identity as a renegade artist who had become a major property owner, so there was considerable focus on housing investments. It is logical that she currently desires to explore new kinds of material, directing her gaze to external narratives, at a period in which she asserts that Trumpian politics turns intimate literature redundant.

Multiple Generations, One Unescapable Past

The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, encompassing several time periods – each trapped by their backgrounds. There is the story of Emma and Jasper, based on her own mother and father, moving from the Bronx to a pastoral setting. Additionally the narrative of the author, in the guise of protagonist Catt Greene, grappling with the belated success of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her substance-dependent spouse her husband Paul. Finally the story of the murder of one lost young man by another in a locality largely deserted by liberal ideals only a short distance from Catt's cottage in a remote part of Minnesota.

As a reader drawn to honed writing of the kind Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was captivated by the literary tone of the first section.

As a reader drawn to precise prose of the style that Kraus often disregards, I was won over by the novelistic voice of the opening segment. It exhibits a fresh level of observation that makes room for trivial aspects, like the bucket that the young Catt dislodges from ice at the beginning of the narrative, helped by her adored dad. "I found an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a great plaything", he responds, "the ambiguous meanings of language tumbling in their mouths like piece candy". Kraus writes Emma's narrative with interest and closeness. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not entirely her own."

Disappointment and Disjunction

I was destined to be disappointed when I expected this new voice could persist to the end. The author states here that she dislikes the satisfaction those who appreciate polished prose have derived from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disruption, to the unpolished style she echoes from her idol Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her earlier works reasserts itself in the middle section. The protagonist is working on refurbishing 36 run-down apartments in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while moving between Minnesota and LA, unsuccessful in assisting her husband manage his alcohol use. She experiences powerlessness as Paul transitions between underfunded jobs as an addiction therapist in a environment fueled by the rage and anxiety that drives an electoral success. A significant portion discusses about Catt being cancelled on Twitter, her occupation changed from "novelist" to "real estate holder" on Wikipedia. The author still appears to be overly concerned about this. In a moment 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 social media opponents would be unable to grasp, would not even perceive".

The Killing Story

Thus we arrive to the murder itself – and the titular day passed by the murdered individual with the murderer and his companions. The author possesses compelling foundational content, and reconstructs step by step what occurred as Brandon came to visit Brittney after meeting her on an app where she offered adult photos. He was hoping for sex but seems amiably to have occupied the day alongside her friends, wandering about having his vehicle repaired and covering the cost of food and substances, before being murdered by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has repeatedly received inpatient care for fits of anger.

Obsession and Unfinished Business

The protagonist becomes fixated by the narrative, and I was intrigued by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards ethical reporting and reckless transgression tussle in this section. Yet I wished her to delve deeper into her own obsessions here. The most interesting character is Brittney herself, who comes alive partly through Catt seeing herself in her – another bright, bullied girl spiraling out of control in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus tells us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in prison, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. The whole section feels oddly unfinished, to the point that her narrative ends almost mid-par