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The Four Spent the Day Together is populated with characters pursuing clean slates, trying to break free from drugs or toxic relationships, only to find hope curdling into conflict. The author repeatedly invokes the phrase "fresh start", transforming it into deliberately jaded through recurring use. Phrases such as "He could make a fresh start" and "They chose to begin anew" appear throughout the narrative. At the same time, the author herself seems to be making her own fresh start, because this seems a novel form of writing – observational, truly literary. However it turns out to be laden with the recurring issues and styles as earlier books.

From Unplanned Author to Cult Classic

The writer started out as an creative who became a writer somewhat by chance with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, made up of missives to a distant beloved, converting personal female narrative from self-debasement into defiance. She persisted as a writer, but the next trio of engaging and challenging novels did not possess the shock and immediacy that the correspondence format imparted to the tone of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her role as a renegade artist who had become a major property owner, so there was considerable focus on property transactions. It follows that she now wants to explore new kinds of material, turning outward to the experiences of others, at a time when she claims that Trumpian politics makes confessional writing obsolete.

Three Generations, Collective Unavoidable Background

The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, spanning several time periods – none able to break free from their pasts. There is the story of Emma and Jasper, representations of her own mother and father, relocating from the New York borough to the Connecticut countryside. Then there is the story of Kraus herself, in the persona of Catt Greene, grappling with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse Paul. The third thread involves the story of the murder of one troubled youth by another in a community largely deserted by progressive politics only 80 miles from the protagonist's home in rural Minnesota.

For this reader attracted to honed writing of the type Kraus herself often avoids, I was captivated by the narrative style of the first section.

As someone who reads drawn to precise prose of the style that the author tends to eschew, I was won over by the literary tone of the opening segment. It exhibits a novel degree of detail that makes room for minutiae, like the pail that the youthful Catt pries out of frozen water at the start of the story, helped by her beloved father. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she declares; "a lovely toy", he answers, "the nuanced interpretations of terms rolling around in their mouths like piece candy". The author narrates Emma's story with interest and closeness. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not precisely her dream."

Frustration and Disruption

I was fated to feel let down when I expected this new voice could last out the book. Kraus says here that she dislikes the enjoyment readers like me have gotten 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 previous novels returns in the second segment. Catt Greene 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 Paul curb his addiction. She feels helpless as Paul transitions between poorly supported positions as an recovery specialist in a environment propelled by the anger and fear that powers an electoral success. There are several pages about Catt's social media ostracism on a platform, her listed profession modified from "writer" to "real estate holder" on a reference site. Kraus still seems to invest excessive emotion about this. On one occasion she remarks that she's investigating the murder so that before exiting the region, "she may grasp something about an the nation that her social media opponents would fail to comprehend, would overlook entirely".

The Killing Story

Thus we arrive to the actual killing – and the titular day experienced by the deceased with the killer and his friends. Kraus utilizes excellent raw material, and knows hour by hour what transpired when Brandon came to meet Brittney after meeting her on an app where she offered adult photos. He anticipated intimacy but seems affably to have spent the day alongside her friends, loitering having his vehicle repaired and covering the cost of food and substances, before being shot by Brittney's partner Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has often been institutionalized for violent rage.

Fascination and Incompletion

Catt develops an obsession by the narrative, and I found myself captivated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards accurate chronicling and reckless transgression clash in this segment. Yet I wished her to delve deeper into her own obsessions here. The standout figure is Brittney herself, who becomes vivid partly through Catt's identification with her – another bright, bullied girl derailing in a difficult, overlooked locality. The author informs us that Catt speaks to Brittney in detention, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The whole section feels strangely incomplete, to the point that her narrative ends almost mid-par