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This latest work centers on characters seeking fresh starts, struggling to escape drugs or harmful partnerships, only to witness hope devolve into conflict. The author frequently uses the phrase "fresh start", rendering it willfully cynical through its repetitions. Phrases such as "He could make a fresh start" and "They chose to begin anew" appear throughout the narrative. Meanwhile, she is embarking on her personal new beginning, since this seems a different type of work – fact-based, genuinely novelistic. But then it reveals itself to be filled with the same dilemmas and approaches as earlier books.

From Unplanned Author to Cult Classic

The writer began as an visual artist who became a writer unintentionally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, which was composed of missives to a distant beloved, converting personal female narrative from self-debasement into rebellion. She kept producing books, but the next trio of fascinating and rebarbative novels did not possess the power and directness that the epistolary style imparted to the tone of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her position as a maverick maker who had turned into a major property owner, so there was significant attention on real estate deals. It makes sense that she now wants to try out fresh narrative sources, turning outward to external narratives, at a moment when she claims that current political era makes confessional writing obsolete.

Several Eras, One Unescapable Past

The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, spanning multiple eras – none able to break free from their histories. We encounter the story of a couple named Emma and Jasper, representations of her own mother and father, moving from the New York borough to the Connecticut countryside. Additionally the narrative of the author, in the guise of a figure named Catt Greene, grappling with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her partner struggling with addiction her husband Paul. Finally the narrative of a homicide of one lost young man by another in a town long abandoned by liberal ideals only a short distance from Catt's rural residence in the Minnesota countryside.

From my perspective as a reader attracted to honed writing of the sort Kraus herself typically rejects, I was seduced by the narrative style of the initial segment.

As a reader drawn to crafted language of the variety that the author often disregards, I was won over by the literary tone of the opening segment. It possesses a novel degree of detail that makes room for minutiae, like the pail that the young Catt pries out of frozen water at the start of the story, aided by her adored dad. "Look, an ice toy!" she declares; "a lovely toy", he responds, "the elliptical meanings of words rolling around in their mouths like piece candy". The author narrates Emma's narrative with interest and closeness. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not precisely her dream."

Frustration and Disruption

I was bound to become frustrated when I hoped this fresh tone could persist to the end. Kraus notes here that she is annoyed by the pleasure readers like me have taken from I Love Dick; she's committed to disjunction, to the untidy aesthetics she has in common with her idol writer Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her previous novels comes back in the central part. Catt is working on refurbishing multiple decrepit residences in the city's most challenging districts while traveling between the Midwest and the West Coast, unable to aid Paul curb his addiction. She experiences powerlessness as her spouse transitions between poorly supported positions as an recovery specialist in a world propelled by the hostility and dread that powers Trump's victory. There are several pages about Catt being cancelled on Twitter, her professional designation altered from "author" to "property owner" on Wikipedia. Kraus still seems 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 not even perceive".

The Murder Narrative

So then we come to the murder itself – and the eponymous day spent by the murdered individual with the murderer and his associates. Kraus has great source material, and reconstructs step by step what occurred as Brandon came to see Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she offered adult photos. He sought a sexual encounter but seems amiably to have occupied the day alongside her friends, mooching around getting his car mended and funding treats and narcotics, before being murdered by Brittney's boyfriend a man named Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has repeatedly received inpatient care for violent rage.

Obsession and Unfinished Business

Catt develops an obsession by the account, and I found myself captivated by the way that her twin drives towards responsible documentation and daring boundary-pushing clash in this segment. Yet I wished her to go further into her individual preoccupations here. The standout figure is Brittney, who gains dimension in part due to the protagonist's connection to her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman spiraling out of control in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus tells us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in detention, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. The whole section feels oddly unfinished, to the point that her narrative ends almost mid-par