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The new book is populated with characters pursuing new beginnings, attempting to leave behind drugs or toxic relationships, only to see hope turn into conflict. The author repeatedly invokes the phrase "fresh start", making it deliberately jaded through its repetitions. Examples include "He could make a fresh start" and "They decided to make a fresh start" appear throughout the story. At the same time, Kraus herself is embarking on her individual reinvention, since this appears a novel form of writing – fact-based, genuinely novelistic. However it reveals itself to be filled with the recurring issues and styles as her previous works.

From Unplanned Author to Cult Classic

The writer started out as an visual artist who entered the literary world unintentionally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, structured as missives to a distant beloved, converting personal female narrative from abjection into defiance. She continued writing, but the three subsequent compelling and abrasive novels missed the impact and rawness that the epistolary style infused into the narrative voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her position as a nonconformist creator who had become a extensive real estate holder, so there was considerable focus on property transactions. It makes sense that she now wants to try out different types of content, directing her gaze to other people's stories, at a time when she states that Trumpian politics renders personal narrative obsolete.

Multiple Generations, One Unescapable Past

The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, covering several time periods – none able to break free from their backgrounds. We encounter the tale of Emma and Jasper, based on her own mother and father, transitioning from the Bronx to the Connecticut countryside. There is the story of Kraus herself, in the guise of a figure named Catt Greene, reckoning with the belated success of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction Paul. And there is the story of the murder of one lost young man by another in a community largely deserted by forward-thinking policies only 80 miles from Catt's cottage in rural Minnesota.

As a reader attracted to honed writing of the kind Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was enchanted by the literary tone of the opening part.

Being a reader who appreciates honed writing of the variety that Kraus often disregards, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the first section. It exhibits a novel degree of detail that allows space for trivial aspects, like the pail that the youthful Catt dislodges from ice at the opening of the book, helped by her adored dad. "Look, an ice toy!" she declares; "a great plaything", he replies, "the nuanced interpretations of terms tumbling in their mouths like hard candy". Kraus writes the tale of Emma with interest and closeness. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not precisely her dream."

Frustration and Disruption

I was destined to be disappointed when I wished this different style could last out the book. Kraus says here that she resents the enjoyment readers like me have derived from I Love Dick; she's committed to disjunction, to the messy artistic approach she has in common with her inspiration Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her previous novels comes back in the central part. The protagonist is working on refurbishing multiple decrepit residences in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while shuttling between two different states, failing to help Paul curb his addiction. She experiences powerlessness as her spouse transitions between poorly supported positions as an recovery specialist in a environment propelled by the anger and fear that underpins a political win. A significant portion discusses about Catt being cancelled on social media, her professional designation altered from "author" to "property owner" on a reference site. She still gives the impression to care a little too much about this. At one point she remarks that she's looking into the killing so that before departing the state, "she might be able to learn something about an the nation that her social media opponents would be unable to grasp, would overlook entirely".

The Murder Narrative

So then we come to the murder itself – and the eponymous day experienced by the victim with the perpetrator and his associates. Kraus utilizes excellent raw material, and knows hour by hour what transpired when Brandon came to visit Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she sold sex pictures. He anticipated intimacy but seems amiably to have occupied the day with her companions, wandering about having his vehicle repaired and funding treats and narcotics, before being killed by gunfire by her romantic interest Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has repeatedly received inpatient care for aggressive outbursts.

Fascination and Incompletion

Catt develops an obsession by the account, and I was fascinated by the way that her twin drives towards accurate chronicling and audacious rule-breaking clash in this segment. But I'd have liked her to go further into her individual preoccupations here. The most interesting character is the character Brittney, who gains dimension in part due to the protagonist's connection to her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual spiraling out of control in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus notes that Catt converses with Brittney in detention, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. The whole section feels strangely incomplete, to the degree that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par