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The Four Spent the Day Together is populated with individuals pursuing fresh starts, struggling to escape drugs or abusive marriages, only to witness hope devolve into violence. Kraus often employs the phrase "clean slate", rendering it intentionally weary through its repetitions. Examples include "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They decided to make a fresh start" recur in the story. At the same time, the author herself seems to be making her personal new beginning, because this seems a novel form of writing – observational, genuinely novelistic. However it reveals itself to be packed with the same dilemmas and approaches as past novels.

From Accidental Writer to Iconic Work

The writer was originally an artist who entered the literary world somewhat by chance with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, made up of missives to a distant beloved, transforming personal female narrative from humiliation into defiance. She persisted as a writer, but the following three fascinating and rebarbative novels did not possess the impact and rawness that the correspondence format imparted to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her role as a renegade artist who had become a extensive real estate holder, so there was much discussion on real estate deals. It is logical that she presently aims to try out new kinds of material, looking outwards to external narratives, at a period in which she claims that contemporary political climate renders personal narrative obsolete.

Several Eras, Collective Unavoidable Background

The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, spanning several time periods – all unable to escape their backgrounds. The book includes the tale of characters Emma and Jasper, versions of Kraus's parents, relocating from the urban environment to the Connecticut countryside. Then there is the narrative of the author, in the character of protagonist Catt Greene, grappling with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her addict husband her husband Paul. The third thread involves the narrative of a homicide of one lost young man by another in a community largely deserted by progressive politics only a short distance from Catt's rural residence in the Minnesota countryside.

For this reader fond of refined literature of the sort Kraus tends to eschew, I was captivated by the narrative style of the first section.

Being a reader who favors crafted language of the variety that Kraus herself often disregards, I was seduced by the literary tone of the first section. There is a new quality of attentiveness that allows space for trivial aspects, like the pail that the protagonist as a child dislodges from ice at the beginning of the narrative, helped by her adored dad. "I found an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a nice toy", he responds, "the ambiguous meanings of language circulating in their speech like hard candy". Kraus writes Emma's story with inquiry and familiarity. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not hers, exactly."

Frustration and Disruption

I was bound to become frustrated when I hoped this fresh tone could last out the book. Kraus notes here that she is annoyed by the enjoyment readers like me have gotten from I Love Dick; she's committed to disruption, to the untidy aesthetics she echoes from her hero Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her previous novels comes back in the central part. The protagonist is attempting to do up 36 run-down apartments in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while moving between the Midwest and the West Coast, unable to aid her husband manage his alcohol use. She is overwhelmed as Paul moves between poorly supported positions as an substance abuse counselor in a society propelled by the rage and anxiety that underpins a political win. Multiple pages are devoted about the protagonist facing cancellation on a platform, her professional designation altered from "novelist" to "real estate holder" on Wikipedia. She still gives the impression to be overly concerned about this. In a moment she states that she's researching the homicide so that before exiting the region, "she may grasp something about an America that her online critics would be unable to grasp, would overlook entirely".

The Murder Narrative

Then we reach to the actual killing – and the eponymous day experienced by the murdered individual with the killer and his companions. Kraus utilizes compelling foundational content, and knows hour by hour what transpired when the victim Brandon came to visit Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she sold sex pictures. He was hoping for sex but appears congenially to have passed the day alongside her friends, wandering about having his vehicle repaired and funding treats and narcotics, before being shot by her romantic interest Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has frequently been hospitalised for aggressive outbursts.

Obsession and Unfinished Business

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 tussle in this section. Yet I wished her to explore more thoroughly her personal fixations here. The compelling persona is Brittney herself, who comes alive in part due to Catt seeing herself in her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman spiraling out of control in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus notes that Catt converses with Brittney in jail, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The complete segment feels oddly unfinished, to the point that her narrative ends almost mid-par