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The Four Spent the Day Together centers on protagonists pursuing fresh starts, trying to break free from drugs or abusive marriages, only to see hope turn into violence. Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "clean slate", transforming it into deliberately jaded through recurring use. Phrases such as "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They opted for a clean break" recur in the narrative. And yet, she appears to be undertaking her personal new beginning, as this presents as a novel form of writing – fact-based, genuinely novelistic. However it reveals itself to be packed with the familiar conflicts and aesthetics as past novels.

From Chance Novelist to Renowned Book

The writer started out as an visual artist who transitioned to writing somewhat by chance with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, made up of missives to a distant beloved, elevating confessional female writing from humiliation into assassination. She persisted as a writer, but the following three fascinating and rebarbative novels did not possess the shock and immediacy that the epistolary style imparted to the tone of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her position as a renegade artist who had evolved into a extensive real estate holder, so there was significant attention on property transactions. It follows that she currently desires to experiment with new kinds of material, directing her gaze to external narratives, at a moment when she asserts that Trumpian politics turns intimate literature obsolete.

Several Eras, Shared Inescapable History

The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, covering three generations – none able to break free from their pasts. The book includes the story of characters Emma and Jasper, representations of the author's parents, moving from the New York borough to a pastoral setting. Additionally the account of Kraus, in the persona of protagonist Catt Greene, grappling with the belated success of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her addict husband Paul. The third thread involves the account of a killing of one troubled youth by another in a town long abandoned by progressive politics only 80 miles from the protagonist's home in rural Minnesota.

As a reader fond of refined literature of the kind the author herself tends to eschew, I was captivated by the literary tone of the initial segment.

Being a reader who favors honed writing of the variety that Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was captivated by the literary tone of the initial part. It possesses a fresh level of observation that allows space for small details, like the container that the youthful Catt dislodges from ice at the start of the story, helped by her adored dad. "I found an ice toy!" she declares; "a great plaything", he responds, "the nuanced interpretations of terms rolling around in their mouths like hard candy". Kraus writes the tale of Emma with interest and closeness. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not hers, exactly."

Disappointment and Disjunction

I was fated to feel let down when I hoped this fresh tone could last out the book. The author states here that she resents the pleasure readers like me have taken from I Love Dick; she's devoted to fragmentation, to the untidy aesthetics she echoes from her hero author Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her earlier works reasserts itself in the middle section. The protagonist is trying to renovate 36 run-down apartments in the city's most challenging districts while shuttling between Minnesota and LA, unable to aid Paul curb his addiction. She is overwhelmed as Paul moves between poorly supported positions as an addiction therapist in a world propelled by the rage and anxiety that underpins Trump's victory. There are several pages about Catt's social media ostracism on Twitter, her listed profession modified from "author" to "property owner" on the online encyclopedia. She still gives the impression to invest excessive emotion about this. In a moment she says that she's researching the homicide so that before departing the state, "she may grasp something about an America that her Twitter detractors would be unable to grasp, would overlook entirely".

The Killing Story

Then we reach to the actual killing – and the referenced day spent by the murdered individual with the perpetrator and his friends. Kraus utilizes compelling foundational content, and knows hour by hour what transpired when the victim Brandon came to meet Brittney after connecting via an application where she sold sex pictures. He anticipated intimacy but appears congenially to have passed the day in the company of her associates, loitering getting his car mended and covering the cost of food and substances, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's partner Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has often been institutionalized for aggressive outbursts.

Preoccupation and Open Ends

The protagonist becomes fixated by the narrative, and I was intrigued by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards ethical reporting and audacious rule-breaking tussle in this section. However, I would have preferred her to delve deeper into her own obsessions here. The standout figure is Brittney, who comes alive partially because of the protagonist's connection to her – another bright, bullied girl derailing in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus tells us that Catt converses 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