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The new book is populated with characters seeking clean slates, struggling to escape addictions or abusive marriages, only to witness hope devolve into conflict. Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "fresh start", making it intentionally weary through constant reiteration. Sentences like "He could make a fresh start" and "They opted for a clean break" recur in the narrative. At the same time, the author herself appears to be undertaking her personal new beginning, because this presents as a different type of work – fact-based, genuinely novelistic. But then it reveals itself to be packed with the same dilemmas and aesthetics as earlier books.

From Unplanned Author to Renowned Book

The writer was originally an creative who transitioned to writing almost accidentally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, which was composed of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, transforming confessional female writing from humiliation into rebellion. She kept producing books, but the next trio of engaging and challenging novels missed the shock and immediacy that the letter form imparted to the tone of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her identity as a maverick maker who had evolved into a extensive real estate holder, so there was considerable focus on property transactions. It is logical that she currently desires to try out new kinds of material, directing her gaze to other people's stories, at a time when she states that contemporary political climate makes confessional writing redundant.

Multiple Generations, One Unescapable Past

The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, encompassing multiple eras – none able to break free from their pasts. We encounter the tale of characters Emma and Jasper, representations of her own mother and father, moving from the New York borough to rural Connecticut. Additionally the narrative of the author, in the character of a figure named Catt Greene, confronting the belated success of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction Paul. Finally the story of the murder of one lost young man by another in a community largely deserted by forward-thinking policies only a brief drive from the protagonist's home in the Minnesota countryside.

For this reader drawn to honed writing of the sort Kraus tends to eschew, I was seduced by the literary tone of the initial segment.

As a reader drawn to precise prose of the variety that Kraus herself usually avoids, I was won over by the storytelling approach of the first section. There is a fresh level of observation that accommodates trivial aspects, like the container that the young Catt dislodges from ice at the opening of the book, helped by her cherished parent. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she exclaims; "a nice toy", he responds, "the elliptical meanings of words 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 precisely her dream."

Letdown and Fragmentation

I was destined to be disappointed when I expected this different style could continue through the novel. Kraus says here that she is annoyed by the enjoyment readers like me have derived from I Love Dick; she's committed to fragmentation, to the messy artistic approach she has in common with her idol author Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her earlier works comes back in the middle section. The protagonist is trying to renovate three dozen dilapidated units in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while moving between the Midwest and the West Coast, unable to aid Paul curb his addiction. She feels helpless as Paul transitions between poorly supported positions as an addiction therapist in a environment fueled by the hostility and dread that powers Trump's victory. A significant portion discusses about Catt being cancelled on Twitter, her occupation changed from "writer" to "landlord" on Wikipedia. Kraus still seems to invest excessive emotion about this. On one occasion she states that she's investigating the murder so that before departing the state, "she may grasp something about an the United States that her social media opponents would not understand, would not even see".

The Homicide Account

Thus we arrive to the murder itself – and the eponymous day experienced by the victim with the perpetrator and his associates. The author possesses great source material, and knows hour by hour what transpired when the victim Brandon came to visit Brittney after meeting her on an app where she sold sex pictures. He sought a sexual encounter but appears congenially to have passed the day with her companions, wandering about getting his car mended and funding treats and narcotics, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's partner Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has often been institutionalized for violent rage.

Preoccupation and Open Ends

Catt develops an obsession by the narrative, and I was fascinated by the way that her twin drives towards responsible documentation and reckless transgression tussle in this section. But I'd have liked her to delve deeper into her own obsessions here. The compelling persona is Brittney herself, who gains dimension in part due to Catt's identification with her – another bright, bullied girl going off the rails in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus tells us that Catt speaks to Brittney in prison, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The complete segment feels strangely incomplete, to the point that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par