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The Four Spent the Day Together centers on characters pursuing fresh starts, trying to break free from drugs or toxic relationships, only to see hope turn into violence. The author frequently uses the phrase "fresh start", 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 narrative. At the same time, the author herself seems to be making her individual reinvention, as this presents as a novel form of writing – documentarian, truly literary. However it reveals itself to be packed with the same dilemmas and styles as her previous works.

From Unplanned Author to Iconic Work

Kraus started out as an visual artist who became a writer somewhat by chance with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, structured as epistles to an unresponsive love interest, elevating intimate women's literature from humiliation into assassination. She kept producing books, but the three subsequent compelling and abrasive novels did not possess the impact and rawness that the epistolary style infused into the voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her role as a maverick maker who had evolved into a major property owner, so there was much discussion on real estate deals. It makes sense that she currently desires to try out fresh narrative sources, looking outwards to other people's stories, at a moment when she states that Trumpian politics turns intimate literature obsolete.

Several Eras, Collective Unavoidable Background

The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, encompassing several time periods – none able to break free from their histories. The book includes the tale of Emma and Jasper, versions of her own mother and father, relocating from the New York borough to a pastoral setting. Additionally the story of Kraus herself, in the character of Catt Greene, confronting the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her partner struggling with addiction Paul. The third thread involves the story of the murder of one lost young man by another in a locality largely deserted by liberal ideals only 80 miles from Catt's cottage in rural Minnesota.

From my perspective as a reader drawn to honed writing of the sort the author herself typically rejects, I was captivated by the literary tone of the initial segment.

As someone who reads who favors crafted language of the variety that Kraus herself often disregards, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the initial part. There is a fresh level of observation that allows space for minutiae, like the container that the youthful Catt pries out of frozen water at the opening of the book, aided by her beloved father. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she says; "a great plaything", he replies, "the ambiguous meanings of language rolling around in their mouths like sweet treats". She tells the tale of Emma with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not hers, exactly."

Frustration and Disruption

I was bound to become frustrated when I expected this fresh tone could last out the book. Kraus says here that she dislikes the satisfaction readers like me have taken from I Love Dick; she's committed to disjunction, to the messy artistic approach she shares with her hero writer Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her previous novels comes back in the middle section. Catt is trying to renovate three dozen dilapidated units in the city's most challenging districts while traveling between two different states, unsuccessful in assisting Paul control his drinking. She is overwhelmed as Paul transitions between low-resource employment as an recovery specialist in a world propelled by the rage and anxiety that drives a political win. There are several pages about the protagonist facing cancellation on social media, her professional designation altered from "author" to "landlord" on the online encyclopedia. Kraus still seems to be overly concerned about this. On one occasion she says that she's investigating the murder so that before exiting the region, "she might be able to learn something about an the United States that her Twitter detractors would fail to comprehend, would overlook entirely".

The Killing Story

So then we come to the murder itself – and the eponymous day experienced by the murdered individual with the killer and his associates. Kraus utilizes great source material, and details moment by moment what transpired when Brandon came to see Brittney after meeting her on an app where she sold sex pictures. He was hoping for sex but seems amiably to have occupied the day with her companions, loitering fixing his automobile and covering the cost of food and substances, before being shot by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has repeatedly received inpatient care for aggressive outbursts.

Obsession and Unfinished Business

Catt gets obsessed by the story, and I found myself captivated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards responsible documentation and daring boundary-pushing tussle in this section. But I'd have liked her to explore more thoroughly her personal fixations here. The standout figure is the character Brittney, who comes alive partially because of Catt's identification with her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual going off the rails in a struggling, neglected community. The author informs us that Catt speaks to Brittney in detention, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The complete segment feels oddly unfinished, to the point that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par