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This latest work centers on protagonists seeking new beginnings, struggling to escape substance abuse or harmful partnerships, only to witness hope devolve into conflict. The author frequently uses the phrase "new beginning", transforming it into willfully cynical through constant reiteration. Phrases such as "He aimed to start over" and "They decided to make a fresh start" recur in the text. At the same time, Kraus herself is embarking on her own fresh start, as this seems a novel form of writing – observational, genuinely novelistic. But then it reveals itself to be filled with the recurring issues and styles as her previous works.

From Unplanned Author to Iconic Work

Kraus was originally an artist who entered the literary world unintentionally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, made up of letters to an unreceptive lover, elevating personal female narrative from abjection into assassination. She kept producing books, but the next trio of engaging and challenging novels missed the power and directness that the correspondence format imparted to the tone of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her identity as a nonconformist creator who had evolved into a major property owner, so there was considerable focus on property transactions. It follows that she currently desires to experiment with new kinds of material, directing her gaze to the experiences of others, at a moment when she asserts that Trumpian politics renders personal narrative obsolete.

Several Eras, One Unescapable Past

The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, encompassing several time periods – all unable to escape their backgrounds. The book includes the tale of a couple named Emma and Jasper, versions of the author's parents, transitioning from the urban environment to the Connecticut countryside. Then there is the narrative of the author, in the persona of Catt Greene, grappling with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her substance-dependent spouse a man named Paul. And there is the narrative of a homicide of one troubled youth by another in a community mostly forsaken by liberal ideals only 80 miles from Catt's rural residence in the Minnesota countryside.

From my perspective as a reader fond of polished prose of the sort the author herself often avoids, I was captivated by the narrative style of the initial segment.

As a reader who favors honed writing of the variety that Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was won over by the literary tone of the opening segment. It exhibits a novel degree of detail that accommodates small details, like the pail that the protagonist as a child dislodges from ice at the start of the story, assisted by her adored dad. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she says; "a nice toy", he responds, "the nuanced interpretations of terms rolling around in their mouths like piece candy". Kraus writes the tale of Emma with curiosity and intimacy. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not precisely her dream."

Frustration and Disruption

I was fated to feel let down when I wished this new voice could last out the book. Kraus says here that she resents the enjoyment audiences such as myself have derived from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disjunction, to the messy artistic approach she has in common with her hero Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her previous novels reasserts itself in the central part. The protagonist is working on refurbishing three dozen dilapidated units in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while traveling between two different states, failing to help Paul curb his addiction. She feels helpless as Paul moves between underfunded jobs as an recovery specialist in a society fueled by the hostility and dread that underpins an electoral success. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt's social media ostracism on Twitter, her occupation changed from "author" to "property owner" on a reference site. She still gives the impression to invest excessive emotion about this. On one occasion she states that she's investigating the murder so that before leaving Minnesota, "she could potentially understand something about an the nation that her social media opponents would be unable to grasp, would not even see".

The Murder Narrative

Thus we arrive to the homicide in question – and the referenced day passed by the deceased with the killer and his associates. Kraus utilizes compelling foundational content, and knows hour by hour what happened when a man named Brandon came to see Brittney after meeting her on an app where she marketed explicit images. He was hoping for sex but appears congenially to have passed the day with her companions, mooching around having his vehicle repaired and covering the cost of food and substances, before being shot by Brittney's boyfriend a man named Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has often been institutionalized for fits of anger.

Fascination and Incompletion

The protagonist becomes fixated by the account, and I was intrigued by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards responsible documentation and daring boundary-pushing tussle in this section. But I'd have liked her to go further into her own obsessions here. The most interesting character is Brittney, who becomes vivid partially because of the protagonist's connection to her – another bright, bullied girl spiraling out of control in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus tells us that Catt converses with Brittney in detention, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. The whole section feels oddly unfinished, to the extent that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par