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The Four Spent the Day Together features characters pursuing clean slates, attempting to leave behind drugs or toxic relationships, only to see hope turn into conflict. The author repeatedly invokes the phrase "clean slate", transforming it into intentionally weary through its repetitions. Sentences like "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They decided to make a fresh start" are scattered across the story. And yet, she appears to be undertaking her individual reinvention, since this presents as a novel form of writing – observational, truly literary. Yet it turns out to be packed with the same dilemmas and approaches as her previous works.

From Unplanned Author to Iconic Work

The writer began as an creative who transitioned to writing somewhat by chance with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, which was composed of missives to a distant beloved, transforming intimate women's literature from abjection into defiance. She persisted as a writer, but the three subsequent compelling and abrasive novels missed the shock and immediacy that the correspondence format imparted to the voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her identity as a maverick maker who had evolved into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was much discussion on property transactions. It makes sense that she presently aims to experiment with fresh narrative sources, directing her gaze to other people's stories, at a time when she asserts that contemporary political climate renders personal narrative obsolete.

Three Generations, Collective Unavoidable Background

The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, spanning multiple eras – all unable to escape their pasts. We encounter the story of characters Emma and Jasper, representations of the author's parents, relocating from the urban environment to the Connecticut countryside. Then there is the story of Kraus herself, in the guise of protagonist Catt Greene, grappling with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction her husband Paul. Finally the story of the murder of one troubled youth by another in a town largely deserted by liberal ideals only a short distance from Catt's cottage in rural Minnesota.

As a reader fond of polished prose of the sort Kraus herself often avoids, I was enchanted by the novelistic voice of the opening part.

Being a reader who favors precise prose of the style that Kraus tends to eschew, I was captivated by the storytelling approach of the first section. There is a novel degree of detail that allows space for small details, like the pail that the youthful Catt dislodges from ice at the start of the story, assisted by her adored dad. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she says; "a great plaything", he replies, "the elliptical meanings of words rolling around in their mouths like hard candy". Kraus writes the tale of Emma with curiosity and intimacy. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not precisely her dream."

Letdown and Fragmentation

I was fated to feel let down when I expected this fresh tone could continue through the novel. Kraus notes here that she is annoyed by the enjoyment audiences such as myself have gotten from I Love Dick; she's committed to disjunction, to the untidy aesthetics she echoes from her inspiration author Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her earlier works comes back in the second segment. The protagonist is trying to renovate multiple decrepit residences in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while traveling between Minnesota and LA, unsuccessful in assisting her husband control his drinking. She experiences powerlessness as Paul moves between poorly supported positions as an substance abuse counselor in a society driven by the rage and anxiety that powers a political win. There are several pages about Catt's social media ostracism on social media, her professional designation altered from "writer" to "property owner" on a reference site. The author still appears to care a little too much about this. On one occasion she remarks that she's looking into the killing so that before leaving Minnesota, "she could potentially understand something about an the nation that her Twitter detractors would not understand, would not even see".

The Killing Story

So then we come to the homicide in question – and the eponymous day experienced by the victim with the killer and his associates. Kraus utilizes great source material, and details moment by moment what transpired when the victim Brandon came to see Brittney after connecting via an application where she marketed explicit images. He was hoping for sex but seems affably to have spent the day alongside her friends, loitering having his vehicle repaired and paying for snacks and drugs, before being murdered by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has frequently been hospitalised for fits of anger.

Preoccupation and Open Ends

The protagonist becomes fixated by the story, and I was intrigued by the way that her twin drives towards ethical reporting and audacious rule-breaking wrestle in this part. Yet I wished her to go further into her personal fixations here. The standout figure is the character Brittney, who comes alive partially because of Catt's identification with her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman going off the rails in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus notes that Catt converses with Brittney in jail, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. This entire part feels oddly unfinished, to the point that her narrative ends almost mid-par