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This latest work is populated with individuals chasing after clean slates, trying to break free from drugs or harmful partnerships, only to witness hope devolve into aggression. The author frequently uses the phrase "fresh start", making it intentionally weary through constant reiteration. Sentences like "He could make a fresh start" and "They decided to make a fresh start" are scattered across the story. Meanwhile, Kraus herself is embarking on her personal new beginning, since this seems a new kind of book – fact-based, genuinely novelistic. Yet it turns out to be packed with the same dilemmas and approaches as past novels.

From Accidental Writer to Iconic Work

Kraus began as an visual artist who entered the literary world unintentionally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, made up of letters to an unreceptive lover, elevating confessional female writing from self-debasement into assassination. She continued writing, but the following three fascinating and rebarbative novels lacked the power and directness that the letter form brought to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her role as a maverick maker who had evolved into a extensive real estate holder, so there was much discussion on housing investments. It is logical that she now wants to try out different types of content, looking outwards to external narratives, at a period in which she states that Trumpian politics turns intimate literature obsolete.

Multiple Generations, One Unescapable Past

The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, encompassing several time periods – all unable to escape their pasts. There is the story of a couple named Emma and Jasper, representations of Kraus's parents, transitioning from the New York borough to rural Connecticut. There is the account of Kraus, in the persona of protagonist Catt Greene, grappling with the belated success of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her partner struggling with addiction Paul. The third thread involves the story of the murder of one lost young man by another in a locality largely deserted by liberal ideals only 80 miles from Catt's cottage in rural Minnesota.

From my perspective as a reader attracted to polished prose of the kind the author herself often avoids, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the first section.

As someone who reads who appreciates honed writing of the kind that the author often disregards, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the initial part. It exhibits a new quality of attentiveness that accommodates small details, like the bucket that the young Catt pries out of frozen water at the beginning of the narrative, assisted by her beloved father. "Look, an ice toy!" she declares; "a great plaything", he responds, "the ambiguous meanings of language tumbling in their mouths like hard candy". The author narrates the tale of Emma with inquiry and familiarity. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not precisely her dream."

Letdown and Fragmentation

I was destined to be disappointed when I hoped this new voice could last out the book. Kraus notes here that she is annoyed by the satisfaction audiences such as myself have taken from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disruption, to the untidy aesthetics she has in common with her hero author Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her previous novels reasserts itself in the second segment. Catt Greene is working on refurbishing 36 run-down apartments in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while traveling between Minnesota and LA, unsuccessful in assisting her husband curb his addiction. She is overwhelmed as her spouse cycles through poorly supported positions as an substance abuse counselor in a environment driven by the hostility and dread that underpins Trump's victory. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt's social media ostracism on social media, her professional designation altered from "writer" to "real estate holder" on Wikipedia. Kraus still seems to be overly concerned about this. In a moment she says that she's researching the homicide so that before leaving Minnesota, "she could potentially understand something about an America that her social media opponents would fail to comprehend, would not even perceive".

The Killing Story

So then we come to the homicide in question – and the eponymous day passed by the deceased with the murderer and his friends. Kraus utilizes great source material, and knows hour by hour what transpired when Brandon came to see Brittney after connecting via an application where she sold sex pictures. He sought a sexual encounter but appears congenially to have passed the day alongside her friends, wandering about getting his car mended and covering the cost of food and substances, before being murdered by Brittney's partner Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has often been institutionalized for aggressive outbursts.

Fascination and Incompletion

The protagonist becomes fixated by the story, and I was intrigued by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards responsible documentation and reckless transgression wrestle in this part. Yet I wished her to go further into her own obsessions here. The compelling persona is Brittney, who becomes vivid in part due to Catt seeing herself in her – another bright, bullied girl derailing in a troubled, forgotten town. The author informs us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in prison, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. This entire part feels oddly unfinished, to the point that her narrative ends almost mid-par