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The new book features characters seeking fresh starts, trying to break free from substance abuse or abusive marriages, only to see hope turn into violence. The author repeatedly invokes the phrase "fresh start", transforming it into intentionally weary through constant reiteration. Examples include "He aimed to start over" and "They opted for a clean break" recur in the story. And yet, Kraus herself is embarking on her personal new beginning, since this appears a new kind of book – fact-based, genuinely novelistic. But then it reveals itself to be filled with the same dilemmas and aesthetics as her previous works.

From Unplanned Author to Iconic Work

The writer started out as an creative who became a writer unintentionally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, made up of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, transforming confessional female writing from abjection into assassination. She kept producing books, but the following three fascinating and rebarbative novels missed the impact and rawness that the correspondence format imparted to the tone of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her identity as a nonconformist creator who had evolved into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was significant attention on housing investments. It is logical that she currently desires to explore new kinds of material, directing her gaze to the experiences of others, at a period in which she asserts that contemporary political climate renders personal narrative redundant.

Several Eras, One Unescapable Past

The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, covering multiple eras – none able to break free from their histories. The book includes the story of characters Emma and Jasper, representations of her own mother and father, moving from the New York borough to the Connecticut countryside. Then there is the account of Kraus, in the persona of protagonist Catt Greene, confronting the belated success of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse Paul. Finally the account of a killing of one troubled youth by another in a locality largely deserted by liberal ideals only a short distance from the protagonist's home in a remote part of Minnesota.

For this reader drawn to honed writing of the kind Kraus tends to eschew, I was enchanted by the narrative style of the opening part.

As someone who reads who appreciates honed writing of the style that the author tends to eschew, I was won over by the novelistic voice of the initial part. It exhibits a new quality of attentiveness that makes room for minutiae, like the pail that the protagonist as a child pries out of frozen water at the beginning of the narrative, assisted by her cherished parent. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she exclaims; "a lovely toy", he answers, "the ambiguous meanings of language circulating in their speech like hard candy". Kraus writes the tale of Emma with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not precisely her dream."

Disappointment and Disjunction

I was bound to become frustrated when I wished this different style could persist to the end. Kraus says here that she is annoyed by the satisfaction those who appreciate polished prose have derived from I Love Dick; she's devoted to fragmentation, to the untidy aesthetics she shares with her hero Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her previous novels returns in the central part. Catt is trying to renovate multiple decrepit residences in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while moving between Minnesota and LA, unsuccessful in assisting her husband control his drinking. She is overwhelmed as Paul cycles through poorly supported positions as an substance abuse counselor in a world propelled by the hostility and dread that drives Trump's victory. Multiple pages are devoted about the protagonist facing cancellation on a platform, her occupation changed from "writer" to "property owner" on a reference site. The author still appears to be overly concerned about this. On one occasion she remarks that she's researching the homicide so that before departing the state, "she could potentially understand something about an the United States that her online critics would not understand, would not even perceive".

The Homicide Account

Then we reach to the actual killing – and the titular day passed by the deceased with the murderer and his companions. Kraus utilizes great source material, and knows hour by hour what occurred as the victim Brandon came to visit Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she sold sex pictures. He was hoping for sex but seems affably to have spent the day alongside her friends, loitering fixing his automobile and paying for snacks and drugs, before being murdered by her romantic interest Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has often been institutionalized 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 wrestle in this part. However, I would have preferred her to explore more thoroughly her own obsessions here. The most interesting character is Brittney herself, who gains dimension partly through Catt's identification with her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman spiraling out of control in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus notes that Catt converses with Brittney in detention, but she fails to enact these dialogues. This entire part feels curiously unresolved, to the degree that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par