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The Four Spent the Day Together is populated with individuals chasing after clean slates, attempting to leave behind substance abuse or harmful partnerships, only to find hope curdling into violence. Kraus often employs the phrase "fresh start", rendering it deliberately jaded through its repetitions. Examples include "He aimed to start over" and "They chose to begin anew" recur in the story. And yet, Kraus herself is embarking on her individual reinvention, as this presents as a novel form of writing – documentarian, genuinely novelistic. But then it proves to be filled with the familiar conflicts and approaches as earlier books.

From Unplanned Author to Iconic Work

The writer began as an artist who became a writer unintentionally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, which was composed of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, elevating intimate women's literature from abjection into assassination. She kept producing books, but the next trio of engaging and challenging novels missed the impact and rawness that the correspondence format imparted to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her role as a maverick maker who had evolved into a major property owner, so there was much discussion on housing investments. It makes sense that she currently desires to explore different types of content, looking outwards to the experiences of others, at a period in which she asserts that contemporary political climate makes confessional writing obsolete.

Several Eras, Collective Unavoidable Background

The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, covering multiple eras – all unable to escape their backgrounds. We encounter the tale of Emma and Jasper, based on Kraus's parents, relocating from the urban environment to a pastoral setting. There is the account of Kraus, in the persona of protagonist Catt Greene, reckoning with the belated success of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her addict husband Paul. Finally the account of a killing of one lost young man by another in a community mostly forsaken by liberal ideals only a brief drive from Catt's cottage in a remote part of Minnesota.

From my perspective as a reader drawn to honed writing of the kind Kraus herself often avoids, I was enchanted by the narrative style of the opening part.

As a reader drawn to honed writing of the kind that the author usually avoids, I was seduced by the literary tone of the first section. It exhibits a new quality of attentiveness that allows space for small details, like the container that the young Catt frees from the ice at the beginning of the narrative, helped by her cherished parent. "I found an ice toy!" she declares; "a lovely toy", he answers, "the nuanced interpretations of terms tumbling in their mouths like hard candy". Kraus writes Emma's story with curiosity and intimacy. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not hers, exactly."

Letdown and Fragmentation

I was destined to be disappointed when I hoped this fresh tone could last out the book. Kraus says here that she is annoyed by the pleasure those who appreciate polished prose have taken from I Love Dick; she's committed to disjunction, to the messy artistic approach she echoes from her idol author Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her past books comes back in the middle section. Catt Greene is trying to renovate multiple decrepit residences in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while shuttling between Minnesota and LA, failing to help Paul curb his addiction. She feels helpless as Paul moves between underfunded jobs as an addiction therapist in a environment driven by the rage and anxiety that drives an electoral success. There are several pages about the protagonist facing cancellation on social media, her listed profession modified from "writer" to "landlord" on Wikipedia. Kraus still seems to invest excessive emotion 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 not understand, would overlook entirely".

The Homicide Account

So then we come to the murder itself – and the titular day passed by the murdered individual with the perpetrator and his companions. Kraus has great source material, and knows hour by hour what transpired when the victim Brandon came to meet Brittney after connecting via an application where she marketed explicit images. He was hoping for sex but seems amiably to have occupied the day in the company of her associates, loitering fixing his automobile and funding treats and narcotics, before being shot by her romantic interest Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has repeatedly received inpatient care for aggressive outbursts.

Obsession and Unfinished Business

Catt develops an obsession by the story, and I found myself captivated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards ethical reporting and reckless transgression wrestle in this part. But I'd have liked her to delve deeper into her own obsessions here. The standout figure is Brittney herself, who becomes vivid in part due to Catt's identification with her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual spiraling out of control in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus tells us that Catt speaks to Brittney in jail, but she fails to enact these dialogues. This entire part feels oddly unfinished, to the point that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par