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The Four Spent the Day Together features individuals chasing after new beginnings, struggling to escape drugs or abusive marriages, only to find hope curdling into aggression. The author frequently uses the phrase "new beginning", rendering it willfully cynical through constant reiteration. Sentences like "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They chose to begin anew" appear throughout the story. At the same time, the author herself seems to be making her individual reinvention, since this appears a different type of work – fact-based, genuinely novelistic. However it reveals itself to be packed with the recurring issues and aesthetics as her previous works.

From Chance Novelist to Renowned Book

Kraus began as an artist who became a writer somewhat by chance with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, made up of missives to a distant beloved, converting confessional female writing from abjection into defiance. She continued writing, but the next trio of fascinating and rebarbative novels lacked the impact and rawness that the correspondence format imparted to the tone of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her role as a nonconformist creator who had turned into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was much discussion on housing investments. It follows that she now wants to try out different types of content, turning outward to external narratives, at a moment when she asserts that contemporary political climate makes confessional writing obsolete.

Three Generations, Shared Inescapable History

The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, covering several time periods – each trapped by their pasts. There is the tale of characters Emma and Jasper, representations of Kraus's parents, relocating from the New York borough to the Connecticut countryside. Then there is the story of Kraus herself, in the character of a figure named Catt Greene, confronting the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her addict husband a man named Paul. The third thread involves the narrative of a homicide of one troubled youth by another in a town mostly forsaken by progressive politics only 80 miles from the protagonist's home in rural Minnesota.

From my perspective as a reader attracted to refined literature of the kind Kraus tends to eschew, I was captivated by the literary tone of the opening part.

As a reader drawn to crafted language of the variety that the author usually avoids, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the first section. There is a novel degree of detail that makes room for trivial aspects, like the container that the youthful Catt frees from the ice at the start of the story, assisted by her cherished parent. "I found an ice toy!" she declares; "a lovely toy", he responds, "the elliptical meanings of words rolling around in their mouths like sweet treats". Kraus writes the tale of Emma with interest and closeness. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not entirely her own."

Disappointment and Disjunction

I was destined to be disappointed when I hoped this new voice could continue through the novel. Kraus says here that she resents the pleasure those who appreciate polished prose have derived from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disjunction, to the unpolished style she echoes from her inspiration writer Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her past books comes back in the second segment. Catt is attempting to do up multiple decrepit residences in the city's most challenging districts while moving between Minnesota and LA, unsuccessful in assisting her husband manage his alcohol use. She feels helpless as her spouse moves between poorly supported positions as an recovery specialist in a environment propelled by the hostility and dread that drives an electoral success. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt's social media ostracism on Twitter, her professional designation altered from "author" to "property owner" on the online encyclopedia. Kraus still seems to invest excessive emotion about this. On one occasion she says that she's looking into the killing so that before exiting the region, "she may grasp something about an America that her social media opponents would fail to comprehend, would overlook entirely".

The Homicide Account

Then we reach to the actual killing – and the referenced day experienced by the victim with the murderer and his associates. Kraus utilizes excellent raw material, and reconstructs step by step what happened when Brandon came to visit Brittney after connecting via an application where she marketed explicit images. He sought a sexual encounter but appears congenially to have passed the day in the company of her associates, loitering fixing his automobile and covering the cost of food and substances, before being murdered by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has repeatedly received inpatient care for fits of anger.

Obsession and Unfinished Business

Catt develops an obsession by the story, and I found myself captivated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards responsible documentation and reckless transgression tussle in this section. Yet I wished her to go further into her personal fixations here. The compelling persona is the character Brittney, who gains dimension in part due to Catt's identification with her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman spiraling out of control in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus notes that Catt speaks to Brittney in jail, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. The whole section feels oddly unfinished, to the degree that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par