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The Four Spent the Day Together features protagonists chasing after new beginnings, attempting to leave behind substance abuse or toxic relationships, only to see hope turn into conflict. The author often employs the phrase "clean slate", rendering it intentionally weary through its repetitions. Sentences like "He aimed to start over" and "They chose to begin anew" are scattered across the text. And yet, the author herself is embarking on her individual reinvention, since this appears a new kind of book – fact-based, genuinely novelistic. Yet it reveals itself to be filled with the same dilemmas and aesthetics as her previous works.

From Accidental Writer to Renowned Book

Kraus was originally an artist who transitioned to writing almost accidentally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, made up of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, converting personal female narrative from self-debasement into defiance. She continued writing, but the next trio of fascinating and rebarbative novels lacked the power and directness that the correspondence format brought to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her position as a nonconformist creator who had turned into a extensive real estate holder, so there was much discussion on real estate deals. It is logical that she now wants to explore new kinds of material, turning outward to the experiences of others, at a moment when she asserts that Trumpian politics makes confessional writing unnecessary.

Several Eras, Shared Inescapable History

The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, encompassing several time periods – each trapped by their pasts. There is the story of Emma and Jasper, versions of Kraus's parents, relocating from the urban environment to a pastoral setting. Additionally the story of Kraus herself, in the guise of a figure named Catt Greene, confronting the late recognition of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse a man named Paul. And there is the story of the murder of one lost young man by another in a community long abandoned by liberal ideals only a short distance from Catt's cottage in a remote part of Minnesota.

For this reader drawn to refined literature of the type the author herself often avoids, I was enchanted by the literary tone of the opening part.

Being a reader who favors crafted language of the variety that the author often disregards, I was seduced by the storytelling approach of the opening segment. There is a new quality of attentiveness that allows space for small details, like the bucket that the protagonist as a child pries out of frozen water at the beginning of the narrative, assisted by her cherished parent. "Look, an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a great plaything", he replies, "the elliptical meanings of words rolling around in their mouths like hard candy". The author narrates Emma's story with curiosity and intimacy. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not entirely her own."

Letdown and Fragmentation

I was destined to be disappointed when I hoped this fresh tone could persist to the end. The author states here that she dislikes the enjoyment audiences such as myself have gotten from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disruption, to the messy artistic approach she shares with her hero Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her earlier works reasserts itself in the central part. Catt Greene is working on refurbishing three dozen dilapidated units in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while moving between Minnesota and LA, failing to help her husband manage his alcohol use. She experiences powerlessness as Paul moves between low-resource employment as an substance abuse counselor in a society fueled by the anger and fear that powers Trump's victory. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt being cancelled on Twitter, her listed profession modified from "novelist" to "real estate holder" on the online encyclopedia. The author still appears to be overly concerned about this. In a moment she states that she's researching the homicide so that before exiting the region, "she may grasp something about an America that her online critics would be unable to grasp, would not even see".

The Homicide Account

Then we reach to the actual killing – and the eponymous day passed by the murdered individual with the killer and his companions. The author possesses excellent raw material, and reconstructs step by step what happened when a man named Brandon came to visit Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she marketed explicit images. He was hoping for sex but seems amiably to have occupied the day alongside her friends, wandering about getting his car mended and covering the cost of food and substances, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has repeatedly received inpatient care for violent rage.

Preoccupation and Open Ends

Catt develops an obsession by the story, and I found myself captivated by the way that her twin drives towards ethical reporting and audacious rule-breaking clash in this segment. Yet I wished her to explore more thoroughly her individual preoccupations here. The most interesting character is Brittney, who gains dimension partly through the protagonist's connection to her – another bright, bullied girl derailing in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus tells us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in prison, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The complete segment feels curiously unresolved, to the degree that her narrative ends almost mid-par