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The Four Spent the Day Together is populated with protagonists pursuing clean slates, attempting to leave behind drugs or harmful partnerships, only to find hope curdling into conflict. The author frequently uses the phrase "clean slate", rendering it intentionally weary through recurring use. Examples include "He aimed to start over" and "They decided to make a fresh start" recur in the story. And yet, Kraus herself appears to be undertaking her own fresh start, as this presents as a new kind of book – fact-based, truly literary. But then it turns out to be laden with the familiar conflicts and aesthetics as earlier books.

From Unplanned Author to Iconic Work

The writer began as an visual artist who transitioned to writing unintentionally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, made up of letters to an unreceptive lover, converting confessional female writing from self-debasement into assassination. She kept producing books, but the three subsequent engaging and challenging novels lacked the impact and rawness that the correspondence format brought to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her role as a maverick maker who had turned into a major property owner, so there was much discussion on property transactions. It makes sense that she currently desires to try out different types of content, looking outwards to external narratives, at a period in which she states that contemporary political climate makes confessional writing obsolete.

Three Generations, One Unescapable Past

The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, covering three generations – none able to break free from their histories. There is the tale of a couple named Emma and Jasper, versions of the author's parents, moving from the Bronx to rural Connecticut. Then there is the account of Kraus, in the persona of Catt Greene, confronting the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her partner struggling with addiction Paul. And there is the account of a killing of one lost young man by another in a locality long abandoned by forward-thinking policies only a short distance from Catt's cottage in the Minnesota countryside.

As a reader fond of refined literature of the kind the author herself often avoids, I was captivated by the narrative style of the initial segment.

As someone who reads who appreciates precise prose of the variety that Kraus herself usually avoids, I was won over by the novelistic voice of the opening segment. It exhibits a new quality of attentiveness that accommodates trivial aspects, like the pail that the young Catt frees from the ice at the start of the story, assisted by her cherished parent. "I found an ice toy!" she says; "a nice toy", he responds, "the elliptical meanings of words tumbling in their mouths like piece candy". Kraus writes the tale of Emma with inquiry and familiarity. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not precisely her dream."

Letdown and Fragmentation

I was bound to become frustrated when I wished this fresh tone could continue through the novel. Kraus says here that she dislikes the satisfaction those who appreciate polished prose have taken from I Love Dick; she's devoted to fragmentation, to the untidy aesthetics she echoes from her idol Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her past books reasserts itself in the middle section. Catt Greene is attempting to do up three dozen dilapidated units in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while shuttling between two different states, unsuccessful in assisting Paul control his drinking. She is overwhelmed as her spouse cycles through underfunded jobs as an addiction therapist in a environment fueled by the rage and anxiety that underpins a political win. A significant portion discusses about Catt being cancelled on Twitter, her professional designation altered from "novelist" to "landlord" on Wikipedia. She still gives the impression to invest excessive emotion about this. In a moment she remarks that she's investigating the murder so that before departing the state, "she may grasp something about an the nation that her online critics would be unable to grasp, would overlook entirely".

The Homicide Account

Thus we arrive to the homicide in question – and the eponymous day spent by the victim with the murderer and his associates. The author possesses great source material, and details moment by moment what occurred as a man named Brandon came to see Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she sold sex pictures. He sought a sexual encounter but appears congenially to have passed the day with her companions, loitering fixing his automobile and covering the cost of food and substances, before being shot by her romantic interest a man named Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has frequently been hospitalised for violent rage.

Fascination and Incompletion

Catt develops an obsession by the narrative, and I was fascinated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards ethical reporting and reckless transgression tussle in this section. But I'd have liked her to explore more thoroughly her individual preoccupations here. The most interesting character is Brittney herself, who comes alive in part due to Catt's identification with her – another bright, bullied girl derailing in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus notes that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in prison, but she fails to enact these dialogues. This entire part feels strangely incomplete, to the point that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par