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This latest work centers on protagonists seeking clean slates, attempting to leave behind substance abuse or abusive marriages, only to see hope turn into aggression. The author frequently uses the phrase "new beginning", rendering it deliberately jaded through constant reiteration. Examples include "He aimed to start over" and "They decided to make a fresh start" recur in the text. Meanwhile, she seems to be making her personal new beginning, because this appears a new kind of book – fact-based, truly literary. Yet it reveals itself to be laden with the same dilemmas and aesthetics as her previous works.

From Chance Novelist to Renowned Book

Kraus started out as an artist who transitioned to writing somewhat by chance with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, structured as letters to an unreceptive lover, transforming personal female narrative from abjection into assassination. She kept producing books, but the next trio of fascinating and rebarbative novels did not possess the power and directness that the correspondence format infused into the voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her role as a maverick maker who had become a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was considerable focus on real estate deals. It is logical that she presently aims to try out fresh narrative sources, turning outward to external narratives, at a time when she states that contemporary political climate turns intimate literature obsolete.

Multiple Generations, Shared Inescapable History

The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, spanning several time periods – none able to break free from their backgrounds. There is the narrative about a couple named Emma and Jasper, versions of the author's parents, relocating from the New York borough to rural Connecticut. There is the story of Kraus herself, in the persona of Catt Greene, confronting the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction Paul. And there is the story of the murder of one directionless individual by another in a community mostly forsaken by progressive politics only a short distance from Catt's rural residence in rural Minnesota.

As a reader attracted to honed writing of the kind the author herself tends to eschew, I was enchanted by the narrative style of the initial segment.

Being a reader who favors crafted language of the kind that Kraus herself usually avoids, I was won over by the literary tone of the opening segment. There is a new quality of attentiveness that allows space for trivial aspects, like the pail that the protagonist as a child pries out of frozen water at the start of the story, aided by her beloved father. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she exclaims; "a nice toy", he replies, "the elliptical meanings of words tumbling in their mouths like hard candy". She tells Emma's narrative with interest and closeness. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not entirely her own."

Letdown and Fragmentation

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 those who appreciate polished prose have derived from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disruption, to the unpolished style she echoes from her inspiration writer Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her earlier works comes back in the middle section. The protagonist is attempting to do up multiple decrepit residences in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while moving between the Midwest and the West Coast, unable to aid her husband manage his alcohol use. She experiences powerlessness as her spouse cycles through low-resource employment as an addiction therapist in a world propelled by the hostility and dread that underpins Trump's victory. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt's social media ostracism on a platform, her listed profession modified from "novelist" to "property owner" on a reference site. Kraus still seems to invest excessive emotion about this. In a moment she states that she's looking into the killing so that before leaving Minnesota, "she could potentially understand something about an the nation that her Twitter detractors would be unable to grasp, would not even see".

The Murder Narrative

So then we come to the homicide in question – and the referenced day experienced by the victim with the murderer and his associates. Kraus utilizes great source material, and reconstructs step by step what occurred as Brandon came to meet Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she offered adult photos. He sought a sexual encounter but seems affably to have spent the day in the company of her associates, wandering about getting his car mended and covering the cost of food and substances, before being murdered by her romantic interest 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 ethical reporting and audacious rule-breaking clash in this segment. Yet I wished her to go further into her individual preoccupations here. The most interesting character is the character Brittney, who gains dimension in part due to Catt seeing herself in her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman going off the rails in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus notes that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in prison, but she fails to enact these dialogues. This entire part feels strangely incomplete, to the point that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par