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The Four Spent the Day Together features protagonists chasing after clean slates, attempting to leave behind addictions or toxic relationships, only to witness hope devolve into aggression. Kraus frequently uses the phrase "clean slate", rendering it willfully cynical through its repetitions. Examples include "He could make a fresh start" and "They decided to make a fresh start" recur in the text. At the same time, the author herself seems to be making her personal new beginning, because this presents as a new kind of book – fact-based, authentically narrative. Yet it reveals itself to be packed with the familiar conflicts and approaches as past novels.

From Chance Novelist to Iconic Work

Kraus was originally an creative who transitioned to writing unintentionally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, structured as missives to a distant beloved, elevating personal female narrative from abjection into rebellion. She persisted as a writer, but the next trio of fascinating and rebarbative novels did not possess the power and directness that the correspondence format imparted to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her position as a nonconformist creator who had become a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was much discussion on housing investments. It is logical that she presently aims to try out fresh narrative sources, turning outward to the experiences of others, at a period in which she states that current political era turns intimate literature redundant.

Several Eras, Collective Unavoidable Background

The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, spanning three generations – all unable to escape their backgrounds. We encounter the tale of a couple named Emma and Jasper, versions of the author's parents, relocating from the New York borough to the Connecticut countryside. Additionally the narrative of the author, in the guise of a figure named Catt Greene, grappling with the belated success of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse Paul. And there is the narrative of a homicide of one directionless individual by another in a locality long abandoned by progressive politics only a brief drive from Catt's cottage in rural Minnesota.

From my perspective as a reader fond of refined literature of the sort the author herself often avoids, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the first section.

Being a reader drawn to honed writing of the style that Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was won over by the literary tone of the first section. It possesses a novel degree of detail that makes room for minutiae, like the bucket that the youthful Catt frees from the ice at the opening of the book, helped by her adored dad. "I found an ice toy!" she says; "a great plaything", he replies, "the ambiguous meanings of language rolling around in their mouths like hard candy". The author narrates Emma's story with interest and closeness. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not hers, exactly."

Frustration and Disruption

I was destined to be disappointed when I wished this fresh tone could continue through the novel. The author states here that she dislikes the enjoyment audiences such as myself have taken from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disjunction, to the messy artistic approach she echoes from her idol writer Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her past books comes back in the second segment. Catt Greene is trying to renovate 36 run-down apartments in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while moving between two different states, failing to help Paul control his drinking. She feels helpless as her spouse transitions between underfunded jobs as an recovery specialist in a environment fueled by the anger and fear that underpins Trump's victory. A significant portion discusses about Catt's social media ostracism on Twitter, her occupation changed from "author" to "property owner" on a reference site. Kraus still seems to be overly concerned about this. At one point she says that she's looking into the killing so that before exiting the region, "she might be able to learn something about an the United States that her social media opponents would not understand, would not even see".

The Killing Story

Thus we arrive to the homicide in question – and the eponymous day passed by the murdered individual with the killer and his friends. The author possesses compelling foundational content, and reconstructs step by step what occurred as the victim Brandon came to visit Brittney after meeting her on an app where she marketed explicit images. He was hoping for sex but seems affably to have spent the day alongside her friends, loitering getting his car mended and funding treats and narcotics, before being murdered by Brittney's partner a man named Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has repeatedly received inpatient care for violent rage.

Obsession and Unfinished Business

Catt develops an obsession by the story, and I found myself captivated by the way that Kraus's dual urges 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 the character Brittney, who comes alive in part due to Catt seeing herself in her – another bright, bullied girl derailing in a struggling, neglected community. The author informs us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in jail, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. This entire part feels oddly unfinished, to the point that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par