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The Four Spent the Day Together features individuals pursuing clean slates, attempting to leave behind drugs or abusive marriages, only to find hope curdling into conflict. Kraus often employs the phrase "clean slate", rendering it intentionally weary through recurring use. Phrases such as "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They decided to make a fresh start" are scattered across the text. Meanwhile, Kraus herself appears to be undertaking her personal new beginning, because this appears a new kind of book – documentarian, genuinely novelistic. Yet it turns out to be packed with the familiar conflicts and approaches as earlier books.

From Accidental Writer to Cult Classic

Kraus started out as an creative who transitioned to writing somewhat by chance with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, made up of missives to a distant beloved, converting personal female narrative from self-debasement into rebellion. She continued writing, but the next trio of fascinating and rebarbative novels lacked the shock and immediacy 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 significant attention on real estate deals. It is logical that she currently desires to explore fresh narrative sources, directing her gaze to the experiences of others, at a time when she claims that current political era renders personal narrative redundant.

Several Eras, One Unescapable Past

The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, spanning several time periods – each trapped by their pasts. There is the tale of characters Emma and Jasper, based on Kraus's parents, relocating from the urban environment to rural Connecticut. There is the narrative of the author, in the character of protagonist Catt Greene, confronting the belated success of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her addict husband a man named Paul. And there is the story of the murder of one directionless individual by another in a community long abandoned by progressive politics only a short distance from Catt's cottage in the Minnesota countryside.

As a reader fond of refined literature of the sort Kraus typically rejects, I was captivated by the narrative style of the opening part.

As a reader drawn to precise prose of the style that Kraus herself usually avoids, I was captivated by the literary tone of the initial part. There is a novel degree of detail that makes room for minutiae, like the container that the protagonist as a child dislodges from ice at the beginning of the narrative, aided by her adored dad. "Look, an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a great plaything", he answers, "the nuanced interpretations of terms rolling around in their mouths like sweet treats". Kraus writes Emma's narrative with curiosity and intimacy. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not hers, exactly."

Frustration and Disruption

I was bound to become frustrated when I hoped this different style could continue through the novel. The author states here that she dislikes the enjoyment readers like me have gotten from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disjunction, to the untidy aesthetics she echoes from her inspiration writer Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her past books returns in the central part. Catt is working on refurbishing three dozen dilapidated units in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while shuttling between the Midwest and the West Coast, failing to help her husband control his drinking. She feels helpless as Paul moves between low-resource employment as an substance abuse counselor in a society fueled by the hostility and dread that drives Trump's victory. There are several pages about Catt's social media ostracism on a platform, her listed profession modified from "author" to "landlord" on a reference site. The author still appears to care a little too much about this. At one point she remarks that she's investigating the murder so that before exiting the region, "she might be able to learn something about an the nation that her online critics would fail to comprehend, would not even see".

The Killing Story

Thus we arrive to the actual killing – and the referenced day passed by the deceased with the perpetrator and his companions. Kraus utilizes compelling foundational content, and details moment by moment what transpired when a man named Brandon came to visit Brittney after connecting via an application where she marketed explicit images. He was hoping for sex but seems affably to have spent the day alongside her friends, loitering fixing his automobile and covering the cost of food and substances, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's partner Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has frequently been hospitalised for aggressive outbursts.

Obsession and Unfinished Business

The protagonist becomes fixated by the narrative, and I was fascinated by the way that her twin drives towards responsible documentation and audacious rule-breaking wrestle in this part. Yet I wished her to explore more thoroughly her individual preoccupations here. The standout figure is Brittney, who gains dimension partially because of Catt's identification with her – another bright, bullied girl going off the rails in a difficult, overlooked locality. The author informs us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in prison, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. This entire part feels strangely incomplete, to the point that her narrative ends almost mid-par