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The Four Spent the Day Together centers on individuals pursuing clean slates, attempting to leave behind drugs or harmful partnerships, only to witness hope devolve into aggression. The author often employs the phrase "clean slate", rendering it willfully cynical through its repetitions. Phrases such as "He could make a fresh start" and "They opted for a clean break" recur in the narrative. Meanwhile, the author herself appears to be undertaking her personal new beginning, as this seems a new kind of book – fact-based, truly literary. However it proves to be packed with the same dilemmas and styles as earlier books.

From Chance Novelist to Renowned Book

Kraus was originally an creative who became a writer almost accidentally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, structured as letters to an unreceptive lover, transforming intimate women's literature from self-debasement into assassination. She persisted as a writer, but the following three fascinating and rebarbative novels missed the shock and immediacy that the letter form imparted to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her identity as a maverick maker who had become a major property owner, so there was considerable focus on real estate deals. It makes sense that she presently aims to explore different types of content, looking outwards to the experiences of others, at a moment when she states that contemporary political climate turns intimate literature unnecessary.

Multiple Generations, One Unescapable Past

The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, spanning multiple eras – none able to break free from their histories. The book includes the narrative about Emma and Jasper, based on the author's parents, moving from the Bronx to the Connecticut countryside. Then there is the story of Kraus herself, in the persona of a figure named Catt Greene, grappling with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction Paul. Finally the narrative of a homicide of one directionless individual by another in a community long abandoned by forward-thinking policies only a short distance from Catt's cottage in the Minnesota countryside.

As a reader drawn to refined literature of the kind Kraus tends to eschew, I was enchanted by the literary tone of the opening part.

As someone who reads who favors honed writing of the variety that the author often disregards, I was won over by the literary tone of the first section. It possesses a new quality of attentiveness that accommodates small details, like the pail that the young Catt pries out of frozen water at the beginning of the narrative, helped by her beloved father. "Look, an ice toy!" she says; "a great plaything", he answers, "the ambiguous meanings of language tumbling in their mouths like piece candy". The author narrates the tale of Emma with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not entirely her own."

Frustration and Disruption

I was bound to become frustrated when I expected this different style could last out the book. Kraus says here that she dislikes the enjoyment audiences such as myself have gotten from I Love Dick; she's committed to fragmentation, to the untidy aesthetics she shares with her hero author Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her past books returns in the second segment. Catt Greene is trying to renovate 36 run-down apartments in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while shuttling between the Midwest and the West Coast, unable to aid Paul curb his addiction. She is overwhelmed as her spouse transitions between underfunded jobs as an substance abuse counselor in a environment driven by the hostility and dread that underpins an electoral success. There are several pages about Catt being cancelled on a platform, her professional designation altered from "author" to "real estate holder" on a reference site. The author still appears to be overly concerned about this. At one point she states that she's researching the homicide so that before departing the state, "she could potentially understand something about an America that her social media opponents would fail to comprehend, would not even perceive".

The Murder Narrative

Then we reach to the murder itself – and the titular day experienced by the victim with the perpetrator and his companions. The author possesses excellent raw material, and details moment by moment what occurred as the victim Brandon came to visit Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she offered adult photos. He anticipated intimacy but seems amiably to have occupied 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 her romantic interest Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has frequently been hospitalised for fits of anger.

Fascination and Incompletion

Catt develops an obsession by the narrative, and I found myself captivated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards accurate chronicling and audacious rule-breaking wrestle in this part. Yet I wished her to explore more thoroughly her own obsessions here. The standout figure is Brittney herself, who comes alive partly through the protagonist's connection to her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual spiraling out of control in a troubled, forgotten town. The author informs us that Catt speaks to Brittney in prison, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The whole section feels oddly unfinished, to the point that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par