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The Four Spent the Day Together features protagonists pursuing new beginnings, trying to break free from addictions or harmful partnerships, only to see hope turn into aggression. Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "clean slate", making it willfully cynical through its repetitions. Examples include "He aimed to start over" and "They opted for a clean break" appear throughout the text. Meanwhile, the author herself appears to be undertaking her own fresh start, because this appears a novel form of writing – documentarian, truly literary. Yet it reveals itself to be filled with the same dilemmas and aesthetics as past novels.

From Chance Novelist to Renowned Book

Kraus began as an visual artist who entered the literary world almost accidentally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, which was composed of letters to an unreceptive lover, converting intimate women's literature from self-debasement into assassination. She kept producing books, but the three subsequent engaging and challenging novels lacked the impact and rawness that the epistolary style brought to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her role as a maverick maker who had turned into a major property owner, so there was much discussion on property transactions. It follows that she now wants to try out new kinds of material, turning outward to the experiences of others, at a time when she asserts that Trumpian politics renders personal narrative redundant.

Three Generations, Collective Unavoidable Background

The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, encompassing multiple eras – all unable to escape their histories. We encounter the tale of a couple named Emma and Jasper, representations of her own mother and father, relocating from the urban environment to rural Connecticut. Additionally the story of Kraus herself, in the persona of Catt Greene, confronting the late recognition of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse her husband Paul. Finally the narrative of a homicide of one directionless individual by another in a locality largely deserted by liberal ideals only a short distance from Catt's rural residence in rural Minnesota.

From my perspective as a reader drawn to refined literature of the sort the author herself often avoids, I was enchanted by the novelistic voice of the opening part.

As someone who reads who appreciates crafted language of the variety that the author usually avoids, I was captivated by the storytelling approach of the opening segment. It possesses a fresh level of observation that allows space for minutiae, like the bucket that the youthful Catt frees from the ice at the beginning of the narrative, helped by her cherished parent. "Look, an ice toy!" she declares; "a nice toy", he responds, "the elliptical meanings of words circulating in their speech like hard candy". Kraus writes Emma's story with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not hers, exactly."

Frustration and Disruption

I was destined to be disappointed when I hoped this fresh tone could continue through the novel. Kraus says here that she dislikes the satisfaction audiences such as myself have taken from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disruption, to the untidy aesthetics she shares with her hero author Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her earlier works returns in the central part. The protagonist is working on refurbishing three dozen dilapidated units in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while moving between two different states, unsuccessful in assisting her husband manage his alcohol use. She experiences powerlessness as Paul moves between low-resource employment as an addiction therapist in a world propelled by the hostility and dread that drives Trump's victory. A significant portion discusses about Catt being cancelled on Twitter, her occupation changed from "writer" to "real estate holder" on the online encyclopedia. She still gives the impression to care a little too much about this. On one occasion she states that she's investigating the murder so that before exiting the region, "she may grasp something about an the United States that her Twitter detractors would fail to comprehend, would not even perceive".

The Killing Story

Then we reach to the actual killing – and the titular day spent by the murdered individual with the murderer and his associates. Kraus utilizes excellent raw material, and reconstructs step by step what occurred as a man named Brandon came to see Brittney after meeting her on an app where she offered adult photos. He was hoping for sex but appears congenially to have passed the day with her companions, wandering about fixing his automobile and paying for snacks and drugs, before being killed by gunfire by her romantic interest Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has frequently been hospitalised for fits of anger.

Preoccupation and Open Ends

Catt develops an obsession by the account, and I was intrigued by the way that her twin drives towards accurate chronicling and daring boundary-pushing clash in this segment. But I'd have liked her to explore more thoroughly her personal fixations here. The most interesting character is Brittney, who gains dimension partially because of the protagonist's connection to her – another bright, bullied girl spiraling out of control in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus notes that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in jail, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The whole section feels oddly unfinished, to the point that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par