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The Four Spent the Day Together centers on characters seeking new beginnings, trying to break free from addictions or abusive marriages, only to see hope turn into aggression. The author repeatedly invokes the phrase "new beginning", rendering it willfully cynical through constant reiteration. Phrases such as "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They chose to begin anew" recur in the text. At the same time, Kraus herself seems to be making her personal new beginning, as this seems a new kind of book – observational, authentically narrative. However it proves to be packed with the recurring issues and styles as earlier books.

From Unplanned Author to Renowned Book

Kraus began as an creative who transitioned to writing somewhat by chance with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, structured as epistles to an unresponsive love interest, converting intimate women's literature from humiliation into defiance. She continued writing, but the three subsequent compelling and abrasive novels missed the power and directness that the epistolary style infused into the tone of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her identity as a nonconformist creator who had become a extensive real estate holder, so there was significant attention on property transactions. It follows that she presently aims to experiment with new kinds of material, looking outwards to external narratives, at a period in which she claims that Trumpian politics renders personal narrative obsolete.

Multiple Generations, Shared Inescapable History

The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, spanning multiple eras – none able to break free from their backgrounds. There is the story of Emma and Jasper, versions of the author's parents, transitioning from the urban environment to rural Connecticut. Then there is the account of Kraus, in the character of a figure named Catt Greene, confronting the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse her husband Paul. Finally the narrative of a homicide of one troubled youth by another in a community long abandoned by forward-thinking policies only a brief drive from Catt's rural residence in a remote part of Minnesota.

As a reader fond of refined literature of the kind the author herself tends to eschew, I was seduced by the narrative style of the first section.

Being a reader who favors crafted language of the variety that the author tends to eschew, I was seduced by the literary tone of the first section. There is a novel degree of detail that accommodates trivial aspects, like the pail that the youthful Catt pries out of frozen water at the start of the story, aided by her beloved father. "Look, an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a nice toy", he responds, "the ambiguous meanings of language rolling around in their mouths like sweet treats". Kraus writes Emma's narrative with interest and closeness. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not entirely her own."

Disappointment and Disjunction

I was bound to become frustrated when I hoped this fresh tone could last out the book. The author states here that she dislikes the enjoyment readers like me have gotten from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to fragmentation, to the untidy aesthetics she has in common with her idol Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her earlier works reasserts itself in the central part. The protagonist is attempting to do up multiple decrepit residences in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while traveling between the Midwest and the West Coast, failing to help Paul control his drinking. She is overwhelmed as Paul moves between low-resource employment as an addiction therapist in a society driven by the hostility and dread that drives Trump's victory. There are several pages about Catt's social media ostracism on social media, her occupation changed from "author" to "property owner" on a reference site. Kraus still seems to invest excessive emotion about this. At one point she remarks that she's researching the homicide so that before leaving Minnesota, "she might be able to learn something about an America that her Twitter detractors would fail to comprehend, would not even perceive".

The Homicide Account

Then we reach to the murder itself – and the eponymous day spent by the deceased with the perpetrator and his associates. Kraus has great source material, and knows hour by hour what occurred as the victim Brandon came to meet Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she sold sex pictures. He anticipated intimacy but seems amiably to have occupied the day with her companions, loitering having his vehicle repaired and covering the cost of food and substances, before being murdered by her romantic interest a man named Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has repeatedly received inpatient care for fits of anger.

Obsession and Unfinished Business

Catt develops an obsession by the narrative, and I was intrigued by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards responsible documentation and audacious rule-breaking wrestle in this part. However, I would have preferred her to go further into her own obsessions here. The most interesting character is Brittney herself, who comes alive partially because of Catt's identification with her – another bright, bullied girl derailing in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus notes that Catt converses with Brittney in detention, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The whole section feels curiously unresolved, to the degree that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par