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The new book is populated with protagonists pursuing clean slates, struggling to escape addictions or abusive marriages, only to witness hope devolve into violence. The author frequently uses the phrase "fresh start", rendering it intentionally weary through its repetitions. Phrases such as "He aimed to start over" and "They chose to begin anew" are scattered across the text. At the same time, Kraus herself appears to be undertaking her own fresh start, because this seems a novel form of writing – observational, genuinely novelistic. But then it turns out to be packed with the recurring issues and approaches as earlier books.

From Chance Novelist to Iconic Work

Kraus began as an visual artist who transitioned to writing unintentionally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, structured as missives to a distant beloved, elevating intimate women's literature from humiliation into assassination. She kept producing books, but the following three engaging and challenging novels lacked the shock and immediacy that the correspondence format imparted to the voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her position as a nonconformist creator who had evolved into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was much discussion on housing investments. It follows that she currently desires to experiment with fresh narrative sources, turning outward to the experiences of others, at a time when she states that contemporary political climate renders personal narrative redundant.

Multiple Generations, Collective Unavoidable Background

The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, encompassing several time periods – none able to break free from their pasts. There is the narrative about characters Emma and Jasper, based on the author's parents, moving from the New York borough to a pastoral setting. There is the account of Kraus, in the guise of protagonist Catt Greene, grappling with the belated success of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her addict husband her husband Paul. And there is the account of a killing of one directionless individual by another in a community long abandoned by forward-thinking policies only 80 miles from the protagonist's home in rural Minnesota.

For this reader drawn to polished prose of the type Kraus typically rejects, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the initial segment.

As a reader who appreciates crafted language of the kind that Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was seduced by the storytelling approach of the opening segment. There is a fresh level of observation that makes room for minutiae, like the pail that the young Catt frees from the ice at the beginning of the narrative, helped by her adored dad. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she exclaims; "a nice toy", he responds, "the ambiguous meanings of language rolling around in their mouths like sweet treats". Kraus writes the tale of Emma with interest and closeness. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not precisely her dream."

Letdown and Fragmentation

I was destined to be disappointed when I hoped this different style could continue through the novel. Kraus says here that she resents the satisfaction readers like me have derived from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to fragmentation, to the unpolished style she echoes from her idol writer Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her previous novels comes back in the second segment. Catt Greene is working on refurbishing multiple decrepit residences in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while shuttling between the Midwest and the West Coast, unsuccessful in assisting her husband curb his addiction. She feels helpless as her spouse transitions between low-resource employment as an substance abuse counselor in a world fueled by the anger and fear that powers an electoral success. A significant portion discusses about the protagonist facing cancellation on Twitter, her professional designation altered from "novelist" to "property owner" on the online encyclopedia. Kraus still seems to care a little too much about this. In a moment she says that she's researching the homicide so that before leaving Minnesota, "she may grasp something about an the nation that her online critics would not understand, would not even see".

The Killing Story

So then we come to the actual killing – and the eponymous day passed by the victim with the killer and his companions. The author possesses great source material, and knows hour by hour what transpired when the victim 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 alongside her friends, wandering about getting his car mended and funding treats and narcotics, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's partner a man named Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has often been institutionalized for fits of anger.

Fascination and Incompletion

The protagonist becomes fixated by the story, and I was intrigued by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards responsible documentation and reckless transgression clash in this segment. But I'd have liked her to go further into her own obsessions here. The standout figure is the character Brittney, who becomes vivid in part due to Catt's identification with her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman derailing in a struggling, neglected community. The author informs us that Catt speaks to Brittney in jail, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The whole section feels oddly unfinished, to the extent that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par