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The Four Spent the Day Together features protagonists chasing after new beginnings, attempting to leave behind substance abuse or toxic relationships, only to see hope turn into conflict. The author often employs the phrase "new beginning", 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" recur in the text. At the same time, she appears to be undertaking her own fresh start, since this seems a new kind of book – fact-based, authentically narrative. However it turns out to be packed with the same dilemmas and aesthetics as past novels.

From Accidental Writer to Cult Classic

The writer began as an artist who entered the literary world unintentionally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, structured as letters to an unreceptive lover, converting confessional female writing from self-debasement into defiance. She persisted as a writer, but the following three engaging and challenging novels did not possess the power and directness that the letter form imparted to the tone of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her position as a renegade artist who had evolved into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was significant attention on property transactions. It follows that she now wants to experiment with fresh narrative sources, directing her gaze to external narratives, at a time when she claims that contemporary political climate renders personal narrative obsolete.

Multiple Generations, One Unescapable Past

The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, encompassing multiple eras – none able to break free from their histories. The book includes the story of characters Emma and Jasper, versions of the author's parents, transitioning from the urban environment to a pastoral setting. Then there is the account of Kraus, in the character of a figure named Catt Greene, grappling with the belated success of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her addict husband her husband Paul. And there is the narrative of a homicide of one troubled youth by another in a community largely deserted by forward-thinking policies only a short distance from the protagonist's home in a remote part of Minnesota.

For this reader fond of refined literature of the sort the author herself often avoids, I was seduced by the narrative style of the initial segment.

Being a reader who favors crafted language of the kind that Kraus usually avoids, I was seduced by the storytelling approach of the first section. There is a fresh level of observation that makes room for minutiae, like the pail that the young Catt pries out of frozen water at the start of the story, helped by her cherished parent. "I found an ice toy!" she declares; "a nice toy", he responds, "the elliptical meanings of words tumbling in their mouths like hard candy". The author narrates Emma's story with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not hers, exactly."

Disappointment and Disjunction

I was bound to become frustrated when I wished this fresh tone could persist to the end. Kraus says here that she resents the pleasure audiences such as myself have gotten from I Love Dick; she's committed to disruption, to the unpolished style she has in common with her hero writer Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her earlier works returns in the central part. Catt is attempting to do up multiple decrepit residences in the city's most challenging districts while shuttling between two different states, failing to help Paul curb his addiction. She feels helpless as her spouse moves between low-resource employment as an addiction therapist in a environment fueled by the hostility and dread that powers a political win. Multiple pages are devoted about the protagonist facing cancellation on a platform, her occupation changed from "author" to "real estate holder" on the online encyclopedia. The author still appears to be overly concerned about this. At one point she remarks that she's investigating the murder so that before leaving Minnesota, "she might be able to learn something about an America that her social media opponents would be unable to grasp, would overlook entirely".

The Murder Narrative

Thus we arrive to the actual killing – and the titular day passed by the victim with the killer and his associates. The author possesses excellent raw material, and reconstructs step by step what occurred as the victim Brandon came to meet Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she marketed explicit images. He anticipated intimacy but seems amiably to have occupied the day in the company of her associates, wandering about getting his car mended and paying for snacks and drugs, before being shot by Brittney's partner Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has often been institutionalized for fits of anger.

Fascination and Incompletion

The protagonist becomes fixated by the story, and I found myself captivated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards ethical reporting and daring boundary-pushing wrestle in this part. Yet I wished her to go further into her individual preoccupations here. The compelling persona is Brittney, who comes alive partially because of Catt's identification with her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman spiraling out of control in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus tells us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in detention, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. This entire part feels strangely incomplete, to the point that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par