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The Four Spent the Day Together is populated with individuals seeking clean slates, trying to break free from addictions or abusive marriages, only to find hope curdling into aggression. Kraus frequently uses the phrase "new beginning", rendering it willfully cynical through recurring use. Phrases such as "He aimed to start over" and "They decided to make a fresh start" recur in the story. At the same time, the author herself appears to be undertaking her own fresh start, since this appears a new kind of book – observational, authentically narrative. Yet it turns out to be packed with the familiar conflicts and aesthetics as past novels.

From Unplanned Author to Renowned Book

The writer began as an artist who transitioned to writing somewhat by chance with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, which was composed of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, transforming personal female narrative from humiliation into assassination. She continued writing, but the next trio of fascinating and rebarbative novels did not possess the shock and immediacy that the epistolary style infused into the narrative voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her identity as a renegade artist who had turned into a major property owner, so there was much discussion on real estate deals. It makes sense that she currently desires to try out new kinds of material, looking outwards to other people's stories, at a period in which she states that contemporary political climate renders personal narrative unnecessary.

Multiple Generations, Collective Unavoidable Background

The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, encompassing three generations – all unable to escape their pasts. The book includes the tale of characters Emma and Jasper, versions of her own mother and father, relocating from the Bronx to the Connecticut countryside. There is the narrative of the author, in the character of protagonist Catt Greene, reckoning with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her addict husband a man named Paul. Finally the story of the murder of one directionless individual by another in a town mostly forsaken by liberal ideals only 80 miles from the protagonist's home in a remote part of Minnesota.

As a reader drawn to polished prose of the type the author herself often avoids, I was enchanted by the novelistic voice of the initial segment.

As someone who reads who appreciates precise prose of the variety that Kraus often disregards, I was won over by the literary tone of the initial part. There is a new quality of attentiveness that accommodates trivial aspects, like the pail that the young Catt pries out of frozen water at the start of the story, assisted by her adored dad. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she exclaims; "a nice toy", he replies, "the ambiguous meanings of language circulating in their speech like piece candy". She tells the tale of Emma with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not entirely her own."

Disappointment and Disjunction

I was destined to be disappointed when I expected this new voice could continue through the novel. Kraus says here that she resents the pleasure audiences such as myself have gotten from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disruption, to the untidy aesthetics she echoes from her inspiration author Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her previous novels returns in the middle section. Catt is attempting to do up 36 run-down apartments in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while moving between Minnesota and LA, unsuccessful in assisting her husband manage his alcohol use. She feels helpless as Paul moves between poorly supported positions as an addiction therapist in a world driven by the rage and anxiety that drives Trump's victory. A significant portion discusses about the protagonist facing cancellation on social media, her occupation changed from "novelist" to "landlord" on a reference site. The author still appears to invest excessive emotion about this. In a moment she states that she's looking into the killing so that before exiting the region, "she could potentially understand something about an the United States that her social media opponents would not understand, would not even see".

The Homicide Account

Thus we arrive to the homicide in question – and the titular day experienced by the deceased with the killer and his companions. The author possesses great source material, and knows hour by hour what occurred as Brandon came to visit Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she offered adult photos. He sought a sexual encounter but seems amiably to have occupied the day alongside her friends, mooching around fixing his automobile and funding treats and narcotics, before being murdered by her romantic interest a man named Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has repeatedly received inpatient care for violent rage.

Obsession and Unfinished Business

Catt gets obsessed by the account, and I was fascinated by the way that her twin drives towards ethical reporting and reckless transgression tussle in this section. However, I would have preferred her to go further into her individual preoccupations here. The most interesting character is Brittney, who comes alive in part due to Catt's identification with her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman spiraling out of control in a difficult, overlooked locality. The author informs us that Catt converses with Brittney in detention, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The complete segment feels curiously unresolved, to the extent that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par