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The Four Spent the Day Together centers on characters seeking new beginnings, struggling to escape substance abuse or toxic relationships, only to see hope turn into violence. Kraus frequently uses the phrase "clean slate", rendering it intentionally weary through recurring use. Examples include "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They opted for a clean break" appear throughout the story. At the same time, the author herself is embarking on her personal new beginning, since this presents as a different type of work – observational, genuinely novelistic. Yet it turns out to be packed with the same dilemmas and approaches as earlier books.

From Chance Novelist to Cult Classic

The writer was originally an visual artist who entered the literary world somewhat by chance with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, which was composed of letters to an unreceptive lover, converting personal female narrative from abjection into rebellion. She persisted as a writer, but the following three engaging and challenging novels lacked the shock and immediacy that the epistolary style imparted to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her identity as a maverick maker who had turned into a extensive real estate holder, so there was significant attention on property transactions. It is logical that she presently aims to explore fresh narrative sources, looking outwards to the experiences of others, at a time when she asserts that contemporary political climate renders personal narrative unnecessary.

Several Eras, One Unescapable Past

The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, covering several time periods – all unable to escape their backgrounds. There is the tale of Emma and Jasper, versions of the author's parents, transitioning from the Bronx to rural Connecticut. Additionally the narrative of the author, in the guise of a figure named Catt Greene, reckoning with the belated success of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her substance-dependent spouse a man named Paul. Finally the narrative of a homicide of one lost young man by another in a town long abandoned by forward-thinking policies only a brief drive from Catt's rural residence in a remote part of Minnesota.

For this reader attracted to honed writing of the type the author herself often avoids, I was enchanted by the novelistic voice of the initial segment.

As a reader drawn to precise prose of the variety that the author usually avoids, I was captivated by the storytelling approach of the initial part. There is a novel degree of detail that allows space for minutiae, like the pail that the youthful Catt frees from the ice at the beginning of the narrative, aided by her adored dad. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she says; "a great plaything", he replies, "the elliptical meanings of words tumbling in their mouths like piece candy". The author narrates Emma's narrative with interest and closeness. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not entirely her own."

Letdown and Fragmentation

I was fated to feel let down when I hoped this new voice could persist to the end. Kraus says here that she is annoyed by the satisfaction those who appreciate polished prose have derived from I Love Dick; she's committed to fragmentation, to the untidy aesthetics she echoes from her inspiration writer Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her previous novels reasserts itself in the second segment. Catt is attempting to do up 36 run-down apartments in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while traveling between the Midwest and the West Coast, unable to aid Paul curb his addiction. She feels helpless as Paul cycles through low-resource employment as an recovery specialist in a world driven by the rage and anxiety that underpins Trump's victory. There are several pages about Catt's social media ostracism on social media, her listed profession modified from "writer" to "landlord" on a reference site. The author still appears to be overly concerned about this. On one occasion she says that she's researching the homicide so that before departing the state, "she might be able to learn something about an the nation that her social media opponents would not understand, would overlook entirely".

The Killing Story

So then we come to the homicide in question – and the eponymous day passed by the deceased with the killer and his friends. Kraus has excellent raw material, and knows hour by hour what happened when the victim Brandon came to visit Brittney after meeting her on an app where she marketed explicit images. He anticipated intimacy but seems affably to have spent the day in the company of her associates, wandering about getting his car mended and funding treats and narcotics, before being murdered by Brittney's partner Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has frequently been hospitalised for aggressive outbursts.

Obsession and Unfinished Business

Catt develops an obsession by the account, and I was intrigued by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards responsible documentation and audacious rule-breaking tussle in this section. But I'd have liked her to explore more thoroughly her individual preoccupations here. The compelling persona is the character Brittney, who becomes vivid partly through the protagonist's connection to her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual spiraling out of control in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus notes that Catt speaks to Brittney in jail, but she fails to enact these dialogues. This entire part feels curiously unresolved, to the degree that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par