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The Four Spent the Day Together features characters seeking fresh starts, struggling to escape addictions or harmful partnerships, only to see hope turn into conflict. Kraus frequently uses the phrase "clean slate", transforming it into deliberately jaded through recurring use. Phrases such as "He aimed to start over" and "They opted for a clean break" appear throughout the story. Meanwhile, she seems to be making her individual reinvention, since this presents as a different type of work – documentarian, genuinely novelistic. Yet it reveals itself to be laden with the familiar conflicts and approaches as past novels.

From Accidental Writer to Iconic Work

The writer was originally an creative who became a writer almost accidentally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, structured as missives to a distant beloved, elevating intimate women's literature from self-debasement into rebellion. She persisted as a writer, but the three subsequent fascinating and rebarbative novels missed the power and directness that the letter form imparted to the tone of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her role as a renegade artist who had become a major property owner, so there was significant attention on housing investments. It is logical that she now wants to explore different types of content, turning outward to the experiences of others, at a time when she states that Trumpian politics turns intimate literature unnecessary.

Several Eras, One Unescapable Past

The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, encompassing several time periods – each trapped by their histories. We encounter the narrative about a couple named Emma and Jasper, representations of the author's parents, moving from the urban environment to a pastoral setting. Then there is the account of Kraus, in the character of protagonist Catt Greene, confronting the late recognition of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction Paul. The third thread involves the account of a killing of one lost young man by another in a community largely deserted by progressive politics only a short distance from the protagonist's home in the Minnesota countryside.

From my perspective as a reader fond of polished prose of the type Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was seduced by the literary tone of the opening part.

As someone who reads drawn to precise prose of the kind that Kraus usually avoids, I was won over by the literary tone of the opening segment. There is a novel degree of detail that accommodates trivial aspects, like the bucket that the protagonist as a child pries out of frozen water at the beginning of the narrative, aided by her adored dad. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she declares; "a lovely toy", he responds, "the elliptical meanings of words circulating in their speech like sweet treats". Kraus writes Emma's narrative with interest and closeness. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not hers, exactly."

Letdown and Fragmentation

I was bound to become frustrated when I hoped this fresh tone could continue through the novel. Kraus notes here that she is annoyed by the pleasure those who appreciate polished prose have derived from I Love Dick; she's committed to fragmentation, to the messy artistic approach she has in common with her idol Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her earlier works reasserts itself in the central part. Catt Greene is attempting to do up three dozen dilapidated units in the city's most challenging districts while shuttling between the Midwest and the West Coast, unsuccessful in assisting Paul control his drinking. She experiences powerlessness as Paul moves between underfunded jobs as an substance abuse counselor in a society propelled by the anger and fear that underpins an electoral success. A significant portion discusses about Catt's social media ostracism on a platform, her occupation changed from "writer" to "property owner" on the online encyclopedia. She still gives the impression to care a little too much about this. On one occasion she says that she's researching the homicide so that before exiting the region, "she may grasp something about an the United States that her online critics would be unable to grasp, would overlook entirely".

The Homicide Account

Then we reach to the murder itself – and the titular day experienced by the victim with the perpetrator and his friends. Kraus utilizes great source material, and knows hour by hour what happened when Brandon came to visit Brittney after connecting via an application where she sold sex pictures. He sought a sexual encounter but seems amiably to have occupied the day alongside her friends, loitering getting his car mended and paying for snacks and drugs, before being killed by gunfire by her romantic interest Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has often been institutionalized for violent rage.

Obsession and Unfinished Business

Catt gets obsessed by the narrative, and I was fascinated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards responsible documentation and audacious rule-breaking clash in this segment. However, I would have preferred her to go further into her personal fixations here. The standout figure is the character Brittney, who becomes vivid partly through Catt's identification with her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual spiraling out of control in a struggling, neglected community. 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 degree that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par