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The new book features characters chasing after new beginnings, struggling to escape drugs or toxic relationships, only to witness hope devolve into conflict. The author repeatedly invokes the phrase "fresh start", transforming it into willfully cynical through its repetitions. Sentences like "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They opted for a clean break" recur in the text. And yet, the author herself is embarking on her own fresh start, since this seems a different type of work – documentarian, truly literary. Yet it turns out to be filled with the same dilemmas and aesthetics as earlier books.

From Unplanned Author to Iconic Work

Kraus began as an artist who transitioned to writing almost accidentally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, structured as letters to an unreceptive lover, transforming personal female narrative from abjection into assassination. She continued writing, but the next trio of engaging and challenging novels did not possess the power and directness that the correspondence format imparted to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her position as a maverick maker who had evolved into a major property owner, so there was considerable focus on real estate deals. It makes sense that she now wants to explore new kinds of material, looking outwards to the experiences of others, at a period in which she claims that current political era makes confessional writing unnecessary.

Three Generations, Shared Inescapable History

The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, spanning multiple eras – each trapped by their histories. There is the narrative about characters Emma and Jasper, versions of her own mother and father, transitioning from the urban environment to the Connecticut countryside. Then there is the story of Kraus herself, in the guise of Catt Greene, reckoning with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse her husband Paul. Finally the account of a killing of one troubled youth by another in a locality long abandoned by liberal ideals only a brief drive from the protagonist's home in the Minnesota countryside.

For this reader attracted to polished prose of the sort Kraus herself typically rejects, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the initial segment.

As someone who reads drawn to honed writing of the kind that Kraus tends to eschew, I was seduced by the storytelling approach of the first section. It exhibits a novel degree of detail that allows space for trivial aspects, like the bucket that the young Catt frees from the ice at the start of the story, assisted by her beloved father. "Look, an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a great plaything", he answers, "the elliptical meanings of words rolling around in their mouths like piece candy". Kraus writes Emma's story with curiosity and intimacy. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not precisely her dream."

Disappointment and Disjunction

I was bound to become frustrated when I expected this different style could last out the book. Kraus says here that she dislikes the pleasure audiences such as myself have gotten from I Love Dick; she's committed to disjunction, to the messy artistic approach she shares with her inspiration Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her past books comes back in the central part. Catt is working on refurbishing three dozen dilapidated units in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while moving between Minnesota and LA, failing to help Paul manage his alcohol use. She feels helpless as Paul transitions between poorly supported positions as an addiction therapist in a world propelled by the rage and anxiety that underpins an electoral success. A significant portion discusses about Catt being cancelled on a platform, her listed profession modified from "novelist" to "real estate holder" on the online encyclopedia. Kraus still seems to be overly concerned about this. In a moment she says 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 not understand, would overlook entirely".

The Killing Story

Thus we arrive to the actual killing – and the eponymous day passed by the murdered individual with the killer and his associates. Kraus utilizes great source material, and details moment by moment what happened when a man named Brandon came to see Brittney after connecting via an application where she marketed explicit images. He anticipated intimacy but seems affably to have spent the day alongside her friends, loitering having his vehicle repaired and covering the cost of food and substances, before being killed by gunfire by her romantic interest Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has often been institutionalized for aggressive outbursts.

Fascination and Incompletion

Catt gets obsessed by the account, and I found myself captivated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards ethical reporting and audacious rule-breaking wrestle in this part. Yet I wished her to explore more thoroughly her own obsessions here. The standout figure is Brittney, who becomes vivid partly through Catt's identification with her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman spiraling out of control in a struggling, neglected community. The author informs us that Catt speaks to Brittney in jail, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. This entire part feels oddly unfinished, to the point that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par