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The new book features characters pursuing new beginnings, struggling to escape addictions or harmful partnerships, only to witness hope devolve into conflict. The author often employs the phrase "fresh start", transforming it into willfully cynical through constant reiteration. Sentences like "He could make a fresh start" and "They chose to begin anew" are scattered across the narrative. Meanwhile, she seems to be making her personal new beginning, because this seems a new kind of book – observational, truly literary. But then it turns out to be filled with the same dilemmas and approaches as her previous works.

From Chance Novelist to Iconic Work

The writer began as an artist who transitioned to writing unintentionally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, which was composed of letters to an unreceptive lover, transforming intimate women's literature from self-debasement into assassination. She kept producing books, but the three subsequent engaging and challenging novels missed the impact and rawness that the correspondence format imparted to the voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her role as a renegade artist who had evolved into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was much discussion on real estate deals. It makes sense that she now wants to experiment with different types of content, turning outward to the experiences of others, at a period in which she states that contemporary political climate makes confessional writing obsolete.

Several Eras, One Unescapable Past

The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, spanning multiple eras – each trapped by their backgrounds. We encounter the narrative about a couple named Emma and Jasper, representations of the author's parents, relocating from the New York borough to a pastoral setting. Additionally the account of Kraus, in the character of protagonist Catt Greene, grappling with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her addict husband a man named Paul. Finally the story of the murder of one lost young man by another in a community largely deserted by progressive politics only 80 miles from Catt's cottage in a remote part of Minnesota.

As a reader attracted to polished prose of the sort Kraus typically rejects, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the opening part.

Being a reader who favors crafted language of the variety that Kraus often disregards, I was seduced by the literary tone of the initial part. It exhibits a new quality of attentiveness that accommodates trivial aspects, like the pail that the protagonist as a child dislodges from ice at the beginning of the narrative, assisted by her beloved father. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she says; "a nice toy", he replies, "the elliptical meanings of words rolling around in their mouths like hard candy". Kraus writes the tale of Emma with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not entirely her own."

Letdown and Fragmentation

I was destined to be disappointed when I expected this fresh tone could persist to the end. The author states here that she is annoyed by the pleasure audiences such as myself have taken from I Love Dick; she's committed to fragmentation, to the untidy aesthetics she shares with her idol Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her earlier works reasserts itself in the central part. Catt is attempting to do up 36 run-down apartments in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while traveling between the Midwest and the West Coast, unsuccessful in assisting her husband curb his addiction. She experiences powerlessness as her spouse moves between poorly supported positions as an substance abuse counselor in a society fueled by the rage and anxiety that drives a political win. A significant portion discusses about Catt's social media ostracism on a platform, her listed profession modified from "author" to "real estate holder" on a reference site. Kraus still seems to be overly concerned about this. On one occasion she says 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 not understand, would overlook entirely".

The Murder Narrative

Thus we arrive to the murder itself – and the referenced day spent by the murdered individual with the killer and his companions. Kraus utilizes excellent raw material, and knows hour by hour what occurred as Brandon came to see Brittney after connecting via an application where she offered adult photos. He was hoping for sex but appears congenially to have passed the day alongside her friends, mooching around getting his car mended and paying for snacks and drugs, before being murdered by Brittney's partner Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has repeatedly received inpatient care for aggressive outbursts.

Obsession and Unfinished Business

Catt develops an obsession by the narrative, and I was fascinated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards accurate chronicling and daring boundary-pushing wrestle in this part. However, I would have preferred her to go further into her individual preoccupations here. The most interesting character is the character Brittney, who becomes vivid in part due to the protagonist's connection to her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual going off the rails in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus tells us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in jail, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. This entire part feels curiously unresolved, to the extent that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par