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The Four Spent the Day Together is populated with protagonists seeking new beginnings, trying to break free from drugs or harmful partnerships, only to witness hope devolve into conflict. Kraus often employs the phrase "new beginning", rendering it intentionally weary through its repetitions. Sentences like "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They opted for a clean break" appear throughout the text. Meanwhile, she seems to be making her personal new beginning, because this seems a different type of work – fact-based, genuinely novelistic. But then it proves to be laden with the familiar conflicts and approaches as her previous works.

From Accidental Writer to Cult Classic

The writer was originally an creative who transitioned to writing almost accidentally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, structured as missives to a distant beloved, elevating confessional female writing from abjection into assassination. She kept producing books, but the next trio of fascinating and rebarbative novels lacked the shock and immediacy that the epistolary style infused into the tone of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her identity as a nonconformist creator who had turned into a major property owner, so there was significant attention on real estate deals. It makes sense that she now wants to try out different types of content, directing her gaze to the experiences of others, at a period in which she asserts that contemporary political climate renders personal narrative unnecessary.

Several Eras, Collective Unavoidable Background

The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, encompassing multiple eras – each trapped by their pasts. There is the tale of characters Emma and Jasper, versions of the author's parents, transitioning from the urban environment to the Connecticut countryside. Then there is the account of Kraus, in the character of Catt Greene, grappling with the belated success of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction a man named Paul. The third thread involves the narrative of a homicide of one troubled youth by another in a locality largely deserted by forward-thinking policies only a brief drive from the protagonist's home in rural Minnesota.

As a reader drawn to honed writing of the kind Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was enchanted by the novelistic voice of the opening part.

As a reader who favors precise prose of the variety that the author tends to eschew, I was won over by the novelistic voice of the initial part. There is a fresh level of observation that makes room for minutiae, like the pail that the young Catt frees from the ice at the opening of the book, aided by her cherished parent. "Look, an ice toy!" she declares; "a nice toy", he responds, "the ambiguous meanings of language tumbling in their mouths like hard candy". Kraus writes Emma's story with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not precisely her dream."

Frustration and Disruption

I was bound to become frustrated when I hoped this different style could continue through the novel. The author states here that she is annoyed by the enjoyment audiences such as myself have taken from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disruption, to the unpolished style she shares with her inspiration writer Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her past books returns in the middle section. Catt is trying to renovate three dozen dilapidated units in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while moving between two different states, unable to aid her husband curb his addiction. She is overwhelmed as Paul transitions between low-resource employment as an addiction therapist in a environment propelled by the rage and anxiety that drives an electoral success. A significant portion discusses about Catt being cancelled on Twitter, her professional designation altered from "author" to "real estate holder" on Wikipedia. Kraus still seems to be overly concerned about this. In a moment she remarks that she's investigating the murder so that before exiting the region, "she could potentially understand something about an the nation that her online critics would not understand, would overlook entirely".

The Murder Narrative

So then we come to the actual killing – and the referenced day experienced by the victim with the murderer and his associates. Kraus has excellent raw material, and details moment by moment what transpired when the victim Brandon came to visit Brittney after meeting her on an app where she marketed explicit images. He sought a sexual encounter but appears congenially to have passed the day alongside her friends, loitering having his vehicle repaired and covering the cost of food and substances, before being shot by Brittney's boyfriend a man named Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has frequently been hospitalised for fits of anger.

Obsession and Unfinished Business

Catt gets obsessed by the narrative, and I was fascinated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards accurate chronicling and reckless transgression wrestle in this part. But I'd have liked her to explore more thoroughly her individual preoccupations here. The standout figure is Brittney, who becomes vivid in part due to Catt seeing herself in her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual derailing in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus notes that Catt speaks to Brittney in prison, but she fails to enact these dialogues. This entire part feels curiously unresolved, to the extent that her narrative ends almost mid-par