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The Four Spent the Day Together features protagonists seeking new beginnings, attempting to leave behind substance abuse or harmful partnerships, only to see hope turn into violence. Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "fresh start", making it deliberately jaded through its repetitions. Examples include "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They chose to begin anew" appear throughout the story. At the same time, the author herself appears to be undertaking her personal new beginning, since this appears a new kind of book – fact-based, genuinely novelistic. However it proves to be filled with the same dilemmas and approaches as earlier books.

From Unplanned Author to Renowned Book

Kraus was originally an artist who transitioned to writing almost accidentally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, made up of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, elevating personal female narrative from humiliation into rebellion. She persisted as a writer, but the following three engaging and challenging novels did not possess the power and directness that the correspondence format infused into 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 considerable focus on real estate deals. It makes sense that she now wants to try out new kinds of material, directing her gaze to external narratives, at a time when she asserts that contemporary political climate makes confessional writing obsolete.

Several Eras, One Unescapable Past

The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, encompassing several time periods – none able to break free from their histories. There is the narrative about characters Emma and Jasper, based on the author's parents, relocating from the Bronx to a pastoral setting. Then there is the account of Kraus, in the character of protagonist Catt Greene, reckoning with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse a man named Paul. Finally the narrative of a homicide of one troubled youth by another in a community mostly forsaken by forward-thinking policies only 80 miles from the protagonist's home in rural Minnesota.

For this reader attracted to honed writing of the sort the author herself tends to eschew, I was captivated by the narrative style of the first section.

As someone who reads who favors honed writing of the variety that Kraus herself usually avoids, I was seduced by the literary tone of the initial part. There is a fresh level of observation that accommodates trivial aspects, like the pail that the young Catt dislodges from ice at the beginning of the narrative, helped by her cherished parent. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she declares; "a lovely toy", he replies, "the ambiguous meanings of language tumbling 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 entirely her own."

Frustration and Disruption

I was destined to be disappointed when I wished this fresh tone could last out the book. Kraus notes here that she is annoyed by the pleasure those who appreciate polished prose have gotten from I Love Dick; she's committed to fragmentation, to the untidy aesthetics she has in common with her hero Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her previous novels comes back in the second segment. The protagonist is working on refurbishing 36 run-down apartments in the city's most challenging districts while shuttling between two different states, unable to aid her husband manage his alcohol use. She feels helpless as her spouse cycles through poorly supported positions as an substance abuse counselor in a society driven by the hostility and dread that powers an electoral success. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt's social media ostracism on social media, her professional designation altered from "writer" to "landlord" on the online encyclopedia. Kraus still seems to be overly concerned about this. In a moment she remarks that she's investigating the murder so that before departing the state, "she could potentially understand something about an the nation that her social media opponents would not understand, would not even perceive".

The Killing Story

Then we reach to the homicide in question – and the referenced day passed by the murdered individual with the killer and his friends. Kraus has great source material, and reconstructs step by step what transpired when the victim Brandon came to visit Brittney after meeting her on an app where she marketed explicit images. He anticipated intimacy but seems amiably to have occupied the day alongside her friends, loitering getting his car mended and covering the cost of food and substances, before being shot by Brittney's boyfriend a man named Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has often been institutionalized for violent rage.

Fascination and Incompletion

Catt gets obsessed by the narrative, and I found myself captivated by the way that her twin drives towards accurate chronicling and audacious rule-breaking wrestle in this part. But I'd have liked her to explore more thoroughly her personal fixations here. The standout figure is Brittney, who gains dimension partially because of the protagonist's connection to her – another bright, bullied girl spiraling out of control in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus tells us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in detention, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. This entire part feels curiously unresolved, to the extent that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par