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The Four Spent the Day Together features individuals chasing after clean slates, attempting to leave behind substance abuse or abusive marriages, only to see hope turn into violence. The author repeatedly invokes the phrase "clean slate", rendering it willfully cynical through constant reiteration. Phrases such as "He could make a fresh start" and "They chose to begin anew" are scattered across the story. Meanwhile, the author herself appears to be undertaking her own fresh start, since this appears a different type of work – observational, truly literary. However it turns out to be packed with the same dilemmas and approaches as her previous works.

From Accidental Writer to Cult Classic

The writer was originally an creative who became a writer unintentionally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, structured as letters to an unreceptive lover, transforming confessional female writing from self-debasement into assassination. She persisted as a writer, but the following three engaging and challenging novels missed the shock and immediacy that the epistolary style infused into the voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her role as a nonconformist creator who had become a extensive real estate holder, so there was significant attention on housing investments. It follows that she presently aims to experiment with fresh narrative sources, directing her gaze to other people's stories, at a period in which she claims that current political era renders personal narrative unnecessary.

Multiple Generations, One Unescapable Past

The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, spanning several time periods – each trapped by their pasts. We encounter the story of a couple named Emma and Jasper, based on Kraus's parents, moving from the Bronx to the Connecticut countryside. Additionally the narrative of the author, in the character of Catt Greene, confronting the late recognition of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse Paul. The third thread involves the story of the murder of one troubled youth by another in a locality long abandoned by liberal ideals only a short distance from Catt's cottage in rural Minnesota.

From my perspective as a reader fond of refined literature of the type Kraus often avoids, I was seduced by the narrative style of the initial segment.

As a reader who favors precise prose of the variety that Kraus usually avoids, I was won over by the storytelling approach of the first section. It possesses a fresh level of observation that allows space for small details, like the bucket that the protagonist as a child pries out of frozen water at the beginning of the narrative, helped by her adored dad. "Look, an ice toy!" she declares; "a lovely toy", he responds, "the elliptical meanings of words rolling around in their mouths like piece candy". Kraus writes the tale of Emma with interest and closeness. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not entirely her own."

Letdown and Fragmentation

I was fated to feel let down when I expected this different style could continue through the novel. Kraus says here that she dislikes the pleasure audiences such as myself have taken from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disjunction, to the messy artistic approach she shares with her hero Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her previous novels comes back in the central part. Catt Greene is working on refurbishing three dozen dilapidated units in the city's most challenging districts while shuttling between the Midwest and the West Coast, unable to aid Paul manage his alcohol use. She experiences powerlessness as Paul cycles through poorly supported positions as an substance abuse counselor in a environment fueled by the rage and anxiety that drives an electoral success. Multiple pages are devoted about the protagonist facing cancellation on social media, her occupation changed from "novelist" to "real estate holder" on Wikipedia. The author still appears to be overly concerned about this. On one occasion she says that she's looking into the killing so that before exiting the region, "she could potentially understand something about an the nation that her online critics would fail to comprehend, would not even see".

The Murder Narrative

So then we come to the actual killing – and the titular day experienced by the victim with the killer and his companions. Kraus utilizes great source material, and details moment by moment what transpired when the victim Brandon came to see Brittney after meeting her on an app where she offered adult photos. He sought a sexual encounter but seems affably to have spent the day in the company of her associates, loitering fixing his automobile and funding treats and narcotics, before being shot by Brittney's boyfriend a man named Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has often been institutionalized for aggressive outbursts.

Preoccupation and Open Ends

Catt gets obsessed by the account, and I was intrigued by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards ethical reporting and audacious rule-breaking clash in this segment. Yet I wished her to go further into her personal fixations here. The compelling persona is Brittney, who comes alive partially because of Catt seeing herself in her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual spiraling out of control in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus notes that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in detention, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The complete segment feels curiously unresolved, to the point that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par