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The Four Spent the Day Together features characters chasing after clean slates, trying to break free from substance abuse or abusive marriages, only to see hope turn into aggression. The author repeatedly invokes the phrase "fresh start", transforming it into willfully cynical through constant reiteration. Examples include "He could make a fresh start" and "They chose to begin anew" appear throughout the story. Meanwhile, she seems to be making her own fresh start, as this presents as a novel form of writing – observational, genuinely novelistic. However it proves to be laden with the familiar conflicts and approaches as past novels.

From Chance Novelist to Iconic Work

The writer was originally an creative who transitioned to writing somewhat by chance with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, structured as epistles to an unresponsive love interest, elevating intimate women's literature from abjection into assassination. She persisted as a writer, but the following three engaging and challenging novels missed the impact and rawness that the correspondence format brought to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her identity as a renegade artist who had evolved into a major property owner, so there was significant attention on real estate deals. It is logical that she presently aims to experiment with new kinds of material, turning outward to the experiences of others, at a time when she states that contemporary political climate makes confessional writing unnecessary.

Several Eras, One Unescapable Past

The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, covering three generations – all unable to escape their backgrounds. We encounter the story of Emma and Jasper, representations of the author's parents, moving from the urban environment to a pastoral setting. Then there is the account of Kraus, in the guise of Catt Greene, grappling with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her substance-dependent spouse a man named Paul. The third thread involves the account of a killing of one lost young man by another in a locality mostly forsaken by progressive politics only 80 miles from Catt's cottage in a remote part of Minnesota.

For this reader attracted to honed writing of the type Kraus typically rejects, I was enchanted by the novelistic voice of the first section.

Being a reader drawn to crafted language of the variety that the author often disregards, I was captivated by the literary tone of the initial part. It exhibits a novel degree of detail that allows space for minutiae, like the bucket that the youthful Catt pries out of frozen water at the opening of the book, helped by her cherished parent. "Look, an ice toy!" she declares; "a lovely toy", he responds, "the elliptical meanings of words tumbling in their mouths like piece candy". The author narrates the tale of Emma with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not hers, exactly."

Letdown and Fragmentation

I was fated to feel let down when I wished this fresh tone could persist to the end. The author states here that she is annoyed by the enjoyment readers like me have gotten from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disruption, to the messy artistic approach she echoes from her inspiration author Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her past books comes back in the middle section. Catt is trying to renovate multiple decrepit residences in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while traveling between Minnesota and LA, failing to help Paul curb his addiction. She feels helpless as Paul cycles through underfunded jobs as an substance abuse counselor in a environment driven by the anger and fear that powers an electoral success. There are several pages about the protagonist facing cancellation on Twitter, her professional designation altered from "author" to "landlord" on the online encyclopedia. She still gives the impression to care a little too much about this. In a moment she says that she's researching the homicide so that before departing the state, "she might be able to learn something about an the United States that her social media opponents would not understand, would overlook entirely".

The Homicide Account

Thus we arrive to the homicide in question – and the eponymous day passed by the murdered individual with the killer and his companions. The author possesses great source material, and reconstructs step by step what transpired when a man named Brandon came to visit 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 alongside her friends, wandering about having his vehicle repaired and paying for snacks and drugs, before being shot by Brittney's partner a man named Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has repeatedly received inpatient care for violent rage.

Fascination and Incompletion

Catt gets obsessed by the story, and I found myself captivated by the way that her twin drives towards accurate chronicling and reckless transgression wrestle in this part. However, I would have preferred her to go further into her own obsessions here. The standout figure is the character Brittney, who gains dimension partly through the protagonist's connection to her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman going off the rails in a troubled, forgotten town. The author informs us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in prison, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. This entire part feels curiously unresolved, to the degree that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par