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The Four Spent the Day Together is populated with characters pursuing clean slates, struggling to escape drugs or toxic relationships, only to witness hope devolve into violence. The author frequently uses the phrase "clean slate", transforming it into deliberately jaded through constant reiteration. Phrases such as "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They opted for a clean break" appear throughout the text. At the same time, the author herself is embarking on her personal new beginning, since this seems a different type of work – fact-based, truly literary. However it reveals itself to be filled with the recurring issues and aesthetics as past novels.

From Unplanned Author to Iconic Work

The writer began as an creative who became a writer unintentionally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, made up of letters to an unreceptive lover, elevating intimate women's literature from abjection into rebellion. She kept producing books, but the three subsequent engaging and challenging novels lacked the impact and rawness that the epistolary style brought to the voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her position as a renegade artist who had evolved into a major property owner, so there was much discussion on real estate deals. It follows that she now wants to explore new kinds of material, looking outwards to other people's stories, at a time when she asserts that current political era turns intimate literature unnecessary.

Several Eras, One Unescapable Past

The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, spanning three generations – none able to break free from their histories. We encounter the narrative about Emma and Jasper, representations of the author's parents, moving from the urban environment to a pastoral setting. There is the story of Kraus herself, in the persona of protagonist Catt Greene, confronting the belated success of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction a man named Paul. Finally the narrative of a homicide of one directionless individual by another in a community mostly forsaken by progressive politics only a brief drive from the protagonist's home in rural Minnesota.

As a reader attracted to polished prose of the kind Kraus herself often avoids, I was seduced by the literary tone of the initial segment.

Being a reader who appreciates honed writing of the kind that Kraus usually avoids, I was won over by the novelistic voice of the initial part. It possesses a novel degree of detail that allows space for trivial aspects, like the pail that the young Catt pries out of frozen water at the opening of the book, helped by her cherished parent. "I found an ice toy!" she declares; "a great plaything", he responds, "the nuanced interpretations of terms circulating in their speech like sweet treats". Kraus writes Emma's narrative with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not entirely her own."

Letdown and Fragmentation

I was bound to become frustrated when I wished this new voice could persist to the end. The author states here that she resents the pleasure audiences such as myself have derived from I Love Dick; she's committed to disruption, to the messy artistic approach she has in common with her inspiration Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her earlier works comes back in the central part. The protagonist is attempting to do up multiple decrepit residences in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while traveling between two different states, unsuccessful in assisting Paul control his drinking. She experiences powerlessness as Paul transitions between low-resource employment as an recovery specialist in a environment driven by the anger and fear that powers a political win. A significant portion discusses about Catt being cancelled on a platform, her listed profession modified from "writer" to "real estate holder" on a reference site. Kraus still seems to care a little too much about this. On one occasion she remarks that she's looking into the killing so that before exiting the region, "she could potentially understand something about an America that her Twitter detractors would fail to comprehend, would overlook entirely".

The Killing Story

Then we reach to the homicide in question – and the referenced day experienced by the victim with the murderer and his associates. Kraus utilizes great source material, and reconstructs step by step what occurred as the victim Brandon came to see Brittney after connecting via an application where she offered adult photos. He was hoping for sex but appears congenially to have passed the day in the company of her associates, mooching around fixing his automobile and paying for snacks and drugs, before being killed by gunfire by her romantic interest Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has frequently been hospitalised for fits of anger.

Fascination and Incompletion

The protagonist becomes fixated by the narrative, and I was intrigued by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards ethical reporting and audacious rule-breaking tussle in this section. But I'd have liked her to explore more thoroughly her own obsessions here. The standout figure is the character Brittney, who becomes vivid in part due to Catt seeing herself in her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman derailing in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus notes that Catt speaks to Brittney in jail, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. This entire part feels strangely incomplete, to the point that her narrative ends almost mid-par