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The Four Spent the Day Together centers on protagonists chasing after fresh starts, trying to break free from addictions or harmful partnerships, only to witness hope devolve into aggression. Kraus frequently uses the phrase "clean slate", transforming it into willfully cynical through constant reiteration. Phrases such as "He aimed to start over" and "They decided to make a fresh start" appear throughout the narrative. And yet, Kraus herself appears to be undertaking her individual reinvention, since this seems a new kind of book – observational, truly literary. But then it proves to be filled with the familiar conflicts and approaches as her previous works.

From Chance Novelist to Cult Classic

The writer was originally an visual artist who became a writer somewhat by chance with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, which was composed of missives to a distant beloved, transforming personal female narrative from self-debasement into defiance. She continued writing, but the next trio of compelling and abrasive novels did not possess the shock and immediacy that the epistolary style brought to the voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her identity as a nonconformist creator who had evolved into a extensive real estate holder, so there was significant attention on property transactions. It follows that she now wants to explore fresh narrative sources, looking outwards to other people's stories, at a time when she claims that current political era renders personal narrative obsolete.

Multiple Generations, Shared Inescapable History

The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, covering three generations – each trapped by their pasts. The book includes the tale of a couple named Emma and Jasper, representations of the author's parents, transitioning from the New York borough to a pastoral setting. There is the story of Kraus herself, in the persona of a figure named Catt Greene, reckoning with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction her husband Paul. Finally the account of a killing of one directionless individual by another in a town long abandoned by progressive politics only a brief drive from Catt's rural residence in the Minnesota countryside.

For this reader drawn to polished prose of the kind Kraus typically rejects, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the first section.

Being a reader drawn to precise prose of the kind that Kraus often disregards, I was captivated by the storytelling approach of the opening segment. It possesses a new quality of attentiveness that accommodates minutiae, like the bucket that the young Catt dislodges from ice at the beginning of the narrative, aided by her beloved father. "I found an ice toy!" she says; "a nice toy", he answers, "the nuanced interpretations of terms rolling around in their mouths like piece candy". Kraus writes Emma's story with curiosity and intimacy. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not precisely her dream."

Frustration and Disruption

I was destined to be disappointed when I expected this different style could last out the book. The author states here that she dislikes the pleasure those who appreciate polished prose have taken from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to fragmentation, to the untidy aesthetics she echoes from her inspiration author Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her past books reasserts itself in the middle section. Catt Greene is attempting to do up 36 run-down apartments in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while traveling between Minnesota and LA, unable to aid Paul curb his addiction. She is overwhelmed as Paul moves between poorly supported positions as an substance abuse counselor in a world fueled by the anger and fear that underpins a political win. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt's social media ostracism on Twitter, her listed profession modified from "author" to "real estate holder" on a reference site. She still gives the impression to care a little too much about this. At one point she states that she's looking into the killing so that before leaving Minnesota, "she may grasp something about an the nation that her Twitter detractors would not understand, would overlook entirely".

The Killing Story

Then we reach to the murder itself – and the referenced day passed by the murdered individual with the killer and his associates. Kraus utilizes great source material, and details moment by moment what transpired when Brandon came to visit Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she marketed explicit images. He sought a sexual encounter but seems affably to have spent the day in the company of her associates, loitering fixing his automobile and paying for snacks and drugs, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has frequently been hospitalised for violent rage.

Obsession and Unfinished Business

Catt gets obsessed by the account, and I found myself captivated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards ethical reporting and audacious rule-breaking clash in this segment. However, I would have preferred her to explore more thoroughly her individual preoccupations here. The standout figure is the character Brittney, who gains dimension partially because of the protagonist's connection to her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual spiraling out of control in a difficult, overlooked locality. The author informs us that Catt converses with Brittney in jail, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The complete segment feels oddly unfinished, to the degree that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par