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The Four Spent the Day Together centers on protagonists chasing after fresh starts, struggling to escape addictions or toxic relationships, only to witness hope devolve into violence. The author repeatedly invokes the phrase "new beginning", rendering it intentionally weary through its repetitions. Examples include "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They opted for a clean break" appear throughout the story. Meanwhile, she seems to be making her personal new beginning, since this seems a novel form of writing – observational, genuinely novelistic. Yet it turns out to be filled with the same dilemmas and aesthetics as past novels.

From Unplanned Author to Iconic Work

Kraus was originally an visual artist who entered the literary world almost accidentally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, structured as letters to an unreceptive lover, elevating confessional female writing from abjection into assassination. She kept producing books, but the three subsequent engaging and challenging novels did not possess the power and directness that the correspondence format infused into the narrative voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her role as a maverick maker who had evolved into a extensive real estate holder, so there was much discussion on real estate deals. It makes sense that she now wants to explore new kinds of material, looking outwards to external narratives, at a time when she states that contemporary political climate turns intimate literature obsolete.

Several Eras, One Unescapable Past

The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, covering several time periods – none able to break free from their histories. We encounter the story of characters Emma and Jasper, based on Kraus's parents, relocating from the New York borough to the Connecticut countryside. Then there is the account of Kraus, in the guise of a figure named Catt Greene, grappling with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her substance-dependent spouse Paul. And there is the story of the murder of one troubled youth by another in a locality long abandoned by liberal ideals only a short distance from Catt's rural residence in rural Minnesota.

For this reader fond of polished prose of the type Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was enchanted by the narrative style of the initial segment.

As a reader who appreciates crafted language of the variety that Kraus herself often disregards, I was won over by the novelistic voice of the opening segment. It exhibits a new quality of attentiveness that makes room for small details, like the bucket that the young Catt dislodges from ice at the beginning of the narrative, helped by her cherished parent. "Look, an ice toy!" she declares; "a lovely toy", he responds, "the nuanced interpretations of terms rolling around in their mouths like hard candy". Kraus writes Emma's narrative with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not precisely her dream."

Frustration and Disruption

I was destined to be disappointed when I hoped this different style could continue through the novel. Kraus notes here that she resents the enjoyment audiences such as myself have taken from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disjunction, to the messy artistic approach she echoes from her inspiration author Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her earlier works comes back in the second segment. Catt is working on refurbishing 36 run-down apartments in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while traveling between the Midwest and the West Coast, failing to help Paul curb his addiction. She experiences powerlessness as Paul transitions between low-resource employment as an addiction therapist in a world driven by the anger and fear that drives Trump's victory. Multiple pages are devoted about the protagonist facing cancellation on social media, her listed profession modified from "author" to "real estate holder" on a reference site. The author still appears to invest excessive emotion about this. At one point she states that she's researching the homicide so that before exiting the region, "she could potentially understand something about an the United States that her online critics would fail to comprehend, would overlook entirely".

The Killing Story

Thus we arrive to the murder itself – and the titular day passed by the murdered individual with the killer and his associates. Kraus utilizes excellent raw material, and knows hour by hour what happened when the victim Brandon came to see Brittney after meeting her on an app where she sold sex pictures. He anticipated intimacy but appears congenially to have passed the day in the company of her associates, mooching around having his vehicle repaired and covering the cost of food and substances, before being murdered by Brittney's boyfriend a man named Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has repeatedly received inpatient care for violent rage.

Obsession and Unfinished Business

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 clash in this segment. Yet I wished her to delve deeper into her own obsessions here. The compelling persona is Brittney, who comes alive partly through Catt seeing herself in her – another bright, bullied girl going off the rails in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus tells us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in prison, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. This entire part feels oddly unfinished, to the point that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par