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The Four Spent the Day Together features protagonists seeking new beginnings, struggling to escape addictions or abusive marriages, only to witness hope devolve into violence. The author often employs the phrase "clean slate", transforming it into deliberately jaded through recurring use. Examples include "He aimed to start over" and "They decided to make a fresh start" appear throughout the story. Meanwhile, the author herself seems to be making her own fresh start, since this appears a new kind of book – documentarian, authentically narrative. However it turns out to be laden with the same dilemmas and approaches as earlier books.

From Chance Novelist to Iconic Work

Kraus was originally an artist who transitioned to writing almost accidentally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, structured as missives to a distant beloved, converting confessional female writing from abjection into assassination. She continued writing, but the following three compelling and abrasive novels did not possess the impact and rawness that the letter form imparted to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her role as a renegade artist who had turned into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was considerable focus on housing investments. It is logical that she presently aims to try out fresh narrative sources, turning outward to external narratives, at a moment when she asserts that Trumpian politics turns intimate literature obsolete.

Several Eras, One Unescapable Past

The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, encompassing several time periods – none able to break free from their histories. We encounter the tale of Emma and Jasper, versions of the author's parents, transitioning from the Bronx to the Connecticut countryside. Additionally the account of Kraus, in the guise of protagonist Catt Greene, reckoning with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction Paul. The third thread involves the story of the murder of one directionless individual by another in a community largely deserted by liberal ideals only 80 miles from the protagonist's home in the Minnesota countryside.

From my perspective as a reader drawn to refined literature of the type Kraus typically rejects, I was captivated by the narrative style of the opening part.

Being a reader who appreciates honed writing of the style that Kraus usually avoids, I was captivated by the literary tone of the opening segment. There is a novel degree of detail that allows space for small details, like the bucket that the protagonist as a child dislodges from ice at the beginning of the narrative, assisted by her beloved father. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she declares; "a great plaything", he replies, "the ambiguous meanings of language rolling around in their mouths like piece candy". The author narrates the tale of Emma with interest and closeness. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not hers, exactly."

Frustration and Disruption

I was fated to feel let down when I expected this different style could continue through the novel. The author states here that she dislikes the enjoyment readers like me have taken from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disjunction, to the messy artistic approach she has in common with her inspiration author Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her earlier works reasserts itself in the central part. The protagonist is working on refurbishing 36 run-down apartments in the city's most challenging districts while moving between the Midwest and the West Coast, failing to help her husband manage his alcohol use. She feels helpless as Paul transitions between poorly supported positions as an addiction therapist in a world fueled by the rage and anxiety that underpins Trump's victory. There are several pages about Catt being cancelled on social media, her occupation changed from "writer" to "property owner" on Wikipedia. Kraus still seems to be overly concerned about this. At one point she remarks that she's looking into the killing so that before exiting the region, "she might be able to learn something about an the nation that her social media opponents would be unable to grasp, would not even perceive".

The Homicide Account

Thus we arrive to the murder itself – and the titular day experienced by the deceased 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 see Brittney after meeting her on an app where she sold sex pictures. He was hoping for sex but seems affably to have spent the day in the company of her associates, wandering about getting his car mended and funding treats and narcotics, before being shot by her romantic interest Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has often been institutionalized for aggressive outbursts.

Obsession and Unfinished Business

The protagonist becomes fixated by the narrative, and I was intrigued by the way that her twin drives towards ethical reporting and audacious rule-breaking clash in this segment. However, I would have preferred her to go further into her individual preoccupations here. The compelling persona is Brittney herself, who becomes vivid in part due to Catt seeing herself in her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman going off the rails in a difficult, overlooked locality. The author informs us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in prison, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. The whole section feels strangely incomplete, to the point that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par