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The Four Spent the Day Together features protagonists seeking clean slates, trying to break free from substance abuse or toxic relationships, only to see hope turn into aggression. Kraus often employs the phrase "fresh start", transforming it into willfully cynical through constant reiteration. Phrases such as "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They opted for a clean break" appear throughout the text. Meanwhile, the author herself seems to be making her own fresh start, since this seems a new kind of book – observational, genuinely novelistic. But then it proves to be packed with the same dilemmas and styles as past novels.

From Accidental Writer to Cult Classic

Kraus started out as an visual artist who became a writer somewhat by chance with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, made up of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, converting intimate women's literature from humiliation into rebellion. She continued writing, but the three subsequent fascinating and rebarbative novels missed the shock and immediacy that the letter form imparted to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her position as a nonconformist creator who had evolved into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was significant attention on property transactions. It is logical that she currently desires to experiment with fresh narrative sources, directing her gaze to other people's stories, at a time when she claims that Trumpian politics turns intimate literature unnecessary.

Three Generations, Collective Unavoidable Background

The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, encompassing three generations – each trapped by their pasts. The book includes the story of Emma and Jasper, based on Kraus's parents, transitioning from the New York borough to rural Connecticut. There is the account of Kraus, in the persona of Catt Greene, grappling with the belated success of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her addict husband Paul. Finally the story of the murder of one lost young man by another in a community long abandoned by forward-thinking policies only 80 miles from Catt's rural residence in rural Minnesota.

For this reader drawn to refined literature of the sort Kraus typically rejects, I was seduced by the narrative style of the first section.

As a reader drawn to precise prose of the variety that Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was won over by the literary tone of the first section. It exhibits a new quality of attentiveness that allows space for small details, like the pail that the youthful Catt dislodges from ice at the start of the story, helped by her adored dad. "I found an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a nice toy", he replies, "the elliptical meanings of words circulating in their speech like sweet treats". Kraus writes Emma's story with curiosity and intimacy. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not entirely her own."

Disappointment and Disjunction

I was bound to become frustrated when I hoped this different style could last out the book. The author states here that she is annoyed by the enjoyment those who appreciate polished prose have gotten from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disjunction, to the messy artistic approach she shares with her idol author Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her previous novels reasserts itself in the second segment. Catt Greene is attempting to do up 36 run-down apartments in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while moving between two different states, failing to help Paul control his drinking. She feels helpless as her spouse transitions between low-resource employment as an addiction therapist in a environment driven by the rage and anxiety that powers Trump's victory. There are several pages about the protagonist facing cancellation on a platform, her professional designation altered from "author" to "landlord" on the online encyclopedia. The author still appears to care a little too much about this. On one occasion she states that she's looking into the killing so that before departing the state, "she may grasp something about an the nation that her online critics would fail to comprehend, would overlook entirely".

The Homicide Account

Thus we arrive to the actual killing – and the eponymous day passed by the murdered individual with the perpetrator and his associates. The author possesses great source material, and details moment by moment what occurred as a man named Brandon came to see Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she offered adult photos. He was hoping for sex but appears congenially to have passed the day with her companions, wandering about having his vehicle repaired and covering the cost of food and substances, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has often been institutionalized for fits of anger.

Obsession and Unfinished Business

Catt gets obsessed by the narrative, and I found myself captivated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards accurate chronicling and daring boundary-pushing clash in this segment. But I'd have liked her to delve deeper into her own obsessions here. The most interesting character is the character Brittney, who gains dimension partially because of Catt seeing herself in her – another bright, bullied girl spiraling out of control in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus notes that Catt converses with Brittney in prison, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. The complete segment feels oddly unfinished, to the point that her narrative ends almost mid-par