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This latest work centers on protagonists seeking fresh starts, struggling to escape addictions or harmful partnerships, only to see hope turn into violence. Kraus often employs the phrase "new beginning", rendering it willfully cynical through its repetitions. Examples include "He aimed to start over" and "They chose to begin anew" recur in the text. And yet, Kraus herself is embarking on her personal new beginning, since this seems a new kind of book – fact-based, genuinely novelistic. But then it reveals itself to be packed with the recurring issues and approaches as her previous works.

From Unplanned Author to Iconic Work

Kraus began as an creative who transitioned to writing somewhat by chance with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, which was composed of letters to an unreceptive lover, transforming personal female narrative from abjection into assassination. She continued writing, 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. Compounding this was her position as a nonconformist creator who had turned into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was significant attention on housing investments. It follows that she currently desires to explore new kinds of material, turning outward to external narratives, at a time when she asserts that Trumpian politics makes confessional writing obsolete.

Several Eras, One Unescapable Past

The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, encompassing several time periods – none able to break free from their histories. We encounter the narrative about a couple named Emma and Jasper, versions of the author's parents, transitioning from the urban environment to rural Connecticut. Additionally the account of Kraus, in the guise of Catt Greene, reckoning with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse Paul. Finally the account of a killing of one directionless individual by another in a town largely deserted by liberal ideals only 80 miles from Catt's rural residence in rural Minnesota.

For this reader fond of refined literature of the kind the author herself typically rejects, I was captivated by the literary tone of the initial segment.

As a reader who appreciates crafted language of the variety that Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was seduced by the storytelling approach of the opening segment. It possesses a fresh level of observation that accommodates minutiae, like the pail that the young Catt frees from the ice at the opening of the book, helped by her adored dad. "I found an ice toy!" she declares; "a nice toy", he answers, "the ambiguous meanings of language circulating in their speech like hard candy". She tells Emma's narrative with curiosity and intimacy. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not hers, exactly."

Disappointment and Disjunction

I was fated to feel let down when I hoped this different style could last out the book. The author states here that she resents the satisfaction audiences such as myself have taken from I Love Dick; she's committed to fragmentation, to the messy artistic approach she echoes from her inspiration author Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her past books comes back in the middle section. Catt Greene is trying to renovate 36 run-down apartments in the city's most challenging districts while moving between the Midwest and the West Coast, failing to help her husband control his drinking. She is overwhelmed as Paul transitions between underfunded jobs as an substance abuse counselor in a environment propelled by the hostility and dread that underpins Trump's victory. A significant portion discusses about Catt being cancelled on Twitter, her occupation changed from "author" to "property owner" on the online encyclopedia. Kraus still seems to care a little too much about this. At one point she remarks that she's researching the homicide so that before leaving Minnesota, "she might be able to learn something about an the United States that her Twitter detractors would fail to comprehend, would not even see".

The Murder Narrative

So then we come to the murder itself – and the referenced day passed by the victim with the perpetrator and his friends. Kraus utilizes compelling foundational content, and details moment by moment what occurred as the victim Brandon came to see Brittney after connecting via an application where she sold sex pictures. He was hoping for sex but seems amiably to have occupied the day with her companions, loitering 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 repeatedly received inpatient care for aggressive outbursts.

Preoccupation and Open Ends

Catt develops an obsession by the story, and I was fascinated by the way that her twin drives towards accurate chronicling and reckless transgression wrestle in this part. Yet I wished her to delve deeper into her personal fixations here. The most interesting character is Brittney herself, who gains dimension in part due to Catt seeing herself in her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman going off the rails in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus notes that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in prison, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. This entire part feels oddly unfinished, to the extent that her narrative ends almost mid-par