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The Four Spent the Day Together features individuals seeking fresh starts, trying to break free from substance abuse or harmful partnerships, only to see hope turn into conflict. The author frequently uses the phrase "clean slate", rendering it intentionally weary through recurring use. Phrases such as "He aimed to start over" and "They chose to begin anew" appear throughout the text. At the same time, the author herself is embarking on her individual reinvention, because this appears a novel form of writing – observational, genuinely novelistic. However it reveals itself to be packed with the recurring issues and aesthetics as earlier books.

From Unplanned Author to Cult Classic

Kraus was originally an creative who transitioned to writing unintentionally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, made up of letters to an unreceptive lover, converting intimate women's literature from humiliation into assassination. She kept producing books, but the next trio of compelling and abrasive novels missed the impact and rawness that the epistolary style imparted to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her role as a nonconformist creator who had become a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was significant attention on housing investments. It makes sense that she presently aims to try out fresh narrative sources, looking outwards to external narratives, at a time when she states that current political era makes confessional writing obsolete.

Several Eras, One Unescapable Past

The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, spanning several time periods – all unable to escape their histories. We encounter the narrative about a couple named Emma and Jasper, representations of Kraus's parents, relocating from the Bronx to a pastoral setting. Then 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 substance-dependent spouse her husband Paul. And there is the story of the murder of one directionless individual 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 drawn to honed writing of the type the author herself often avoids, I was enchanted by the literary tone of the initial segment.

As a reader who appreciates honed writing of the kind that Kraus herself often disregards, I was seduced by the storytelling approach of the initial part. It possesses a fresh level of observation that allows space for small details, like the bucket that the youthful Catt frees from the ice at the beginning of the narrative, aided by her cherished parent. "Look, an ice toy!" she declares; "a lovely toy", he responds, "the nuanced interpretations of terms tumbling in their mouths like hard candy". The author narrates the tale of Emma with inquiry and familiarity. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not hers, exactly."

Letdown and Fragmentation

I was bound to become frustrated when I expected this different style could persist to the end. Kraus notes here that she dislikes the enjoyment audiences such as myself have taken from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disruption, to the messy artistic approach she has in common with her idol writer Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her past books returns in the second segment. Catt Greene is working on refurbishing 36 run-down apartments in the city's most challenging districts while shuttling between two different states, failing to help Paul control his drinking. She feels helpless as Paul moves between poorly supported positions as an substance abuse counselor in a environment propelled by the anger and fear that drives a political win. A significant portion discusses about Catt being cancelled on social media, her occupation changed from "novelist" to "property owner" on a reference site. The author still appears to invest excessive emotion about this. On one occasion she says that she's looking into the killing so that before exiting the region, "she may grasp something about an the nation that her online critics would not understand, would not even perceive".

The Murder Narrative

Then we reach to the murder itself – and the referenced day spent by the victim with the perpetrator and his friends. The author possesses great source material, and reconstructs step by step what happened when Brandon came to meet Brittney after meeting her on an app where she offered adult photos. He was hoping for sex but seems affably to have spent the day with her companions, loitering having his vehicle repaired and paying for snacks and drugs, before being shot by Brittney's partner a man named Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has frequently been hospitalised for fits of anger.

Preoccupation and Open Ends

Catt develops an obsession by the narrative, and I was intrigued by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards responsible documentation and reckless transgression tussle in this section. But I'd have liked her to go further into her individual preoccupations here. The most interesting character is Brittney, who becomes vivid partially because of Catt's identification with her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman derailing in a troubled, forgotten town. The author informs us that Catt speaks to Brittney in jail, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The whole section feels oddly unfinished, to the degree that her narrative ends almost mid-par