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The new book centers on protagonists seeking new beginnings, attempting to leave behind addictions or harmful partnerships, only to see hope turn into aggression. The author frequently uses the phrase "fresh start", rendering it intentionally weary through constant reiteration. Examples include "He aimed to start over" and "They opted for a clean break" recur in the narrative. At the same time, she is embarking on her individual reinvention, since this presents as a new kind of book – fact-based, genuinely novelistic. But then it proves to be laden with the recurring issues and approaches as past novels.

From Unplanned Author to Cult Classic

Kraus was originally an visual artist who entered the literary world somewhat by chance with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, which was composed of missives to a distant beloved, elevating confessional female writing from humiliation into assassination. She kept producing books, but the next trio of fascinating and rebarbative novels did not possess the shock and immediacy that the correspondence format infused into the narrative voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her identity as a maverick maker who had become a major property owner, so there was considerable focus on housing investments. It is logical that she presently aims to explore different types of content, directing her gaze to the experiences of others, at a period in which she claims that current political era makes confessional writing redundant.

Several Eras, Shared Inescapable History

The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, covering multiple eras – none able to break free from their backgrounds. There is the tale of a couple named Emma and Jasper, representations of her own mother and father, moving from the urban environment to rural Connecticut. Additionally the account of Kraus, in the persona of protagonist Catt Greene, confronting the belated success of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her addict husband Paul. Finally the narrative of a homicide of one troubled youth by another in a community largely deserted by forward-thinking policies only 80 miles from Catt's cottage in a remote part of Minnesota.

From my perspective as a reader fond of honed writing of the type Kraus typically rejects, I was enchanted by the narrative style of the first section.

As a reader who appreciates precise prose of the style that Kraus herself often disregards, I was won over by the storytelling approach of the initial part. It possesses a novel degree of detail that accommodates minutiae, like the container that the protagonist as a child pries out of frozen water at the beginning of the narrative, aided by her cherished parent. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she declares; "a lovely toy", he responds, "the ambiguous meanings of language tumbling in their mouths like hard candy". She tells Emma's story with inquiry and familiarity. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not hers, exactly."

Letdown and Fragmentation

I was fated to feel let down when I expected this different style could persist to the end. Kraus says here that she resents the satisfaction audiences such as myself have taken from I Love Dick; she's committed to fragmentation, to the unpolished style she has in common with her idol Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her past books returns in the second segment. Catt Greene is trying to renovate 36 run-down apartments in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while traveling between two different states, failing to help Paul control his drinking. She is overwhelmed as Paul transitions between poorly supported positions as an substance abuse counselor in a world driven by the anger and fear that underpins an electoral success. A significant portion discusses about Catt being cancelled on Twitter, her occupation changed from "novelist" to "property owner" on the online encyclopedia. Kraus still seems to invest excessive emotion about this. In a moment she remarks that she's investigating the murder so that before exiting the region, "she could potentially understand something about an the United States that her social media opponents would be unable to grasp, would not even see".

The Homicide Account

So then we come to the murder itself – and the eponymous day spent by the murdered individual with the perpetrator and his companions. Kraus utilizes great source material, and reconstructs step by step what transpired when a man named Brandon came to visit Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she sold sex pictures. He sought a sexual encounter but appears congenially to have passed the day with her companions, wandering about fixing his automobile and funding treats and narcotics, before being murdered by Brittney's partner a man named Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has frequently been hospitalised for violent rage.

Fascination and Incompletion

Catt develops an obsession by the story, and I was intrigued by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards responsible documentation and audacious rule-breaking tussle in this section. But I'd have liked her to go further into her personal fixations here. The most interesting character is Brittney, who comes alive partly through Catt's identification with her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual spiraling out of control in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus notes that Catt speaks to Brittney in detention, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. The whole section feels strangely incomplete, to the point that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par