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This latest work is populated with individuals seeking fresh starts, trying to break free from substance abuse or abusive marriages, only to witness hope devolve into conflict. Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "new beginning", making it deliberately jaded through recurring use. Examples include "He could make a fresh start" and "They opted for a clean break" are scattered across the story. And yet, the author herself appears to be undertaking her own fresh start, as this seems a novel form of writing – observational, genuinely novelistic. However it turns out to be laden with the familiar conflicts and aesthetics as past novels.

From Unplanned Author to Renowned Book

Kraus began as an creative who entered the literary world almost accidentally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, which was composed of letters to an unreceptive lover, transforming intimate women's literature from humiliation into assassination. She continued writing, but the three subsequent fascinating and rebarbative novels lacked the shock and immediacy that the correspondence format brought to the voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her role as a renegade artist who had turned into a major property owner, so there was much discussion on housing investments. It follows that she now wants to experiment with fresh narrative sources, turning outward to external narratives, at a moment when she states that current political era renders personal narrative unnecessary.

Several Eras, Shared Inescapable History

The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, covering three generations – none able to break free from their histories. We encounter the story of characters Emma and Jasper, representations of her own mother and father, moving from the New York borough to a pastoral setting. Additionally the narrative of the author, in the persona of a figure named Catt Greene, reckoning with the belated success of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her substance-dependent spouse Paul. And there is the story of the murder of one directionless individual by another in a locality mostly forsaken by forward-thinking policies only a brief drive from Catt's cottage in a remote part of Minnesota.

For this reader fond of honed writing of the kind Kraus often avoids, I was seduced by the literary tone of the opening part.

As someone who reads who appreciates precise prose of the style that Kraus herself usually avoids, I was won over by the literary tone of the opening segment. It possesses a fresh level of observation that allows space for small details, like the container that the young Catt dislodges from ice at the start of the story, helped by her beloved father. "Look, an ice toy!" she says; "a nice toy", he replies, "the elliptical meanings of words 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 entirely her own."

Disappointment and Disjunction

I was destined to be disappointed when I hoped this fresh tone could continue through the novel. Kraus notes here that she is annoyed by the enjoyment readers like me have derived from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disjunction, to the messy artistic approach she has in common with her idol author Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her previous novels comes back in the central part. Catt Greene is trying to renovate three dozen dilapidated units in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while traveling between two different states, unsuccessful in assisting Paul curb his addiction. She feels helpless as Paul moves between underfunded jobs as an addiction therapist in a society fueled by the anger and fear that drives Trump's victory. A significant portion discusses about Catt being cancelled on Twitter, her occupation changed from "novelist" to "real estate holder" on the online encyclopedia. The author still appears to care a little too much about this. On one occasion she remarks that she's researching the homicide so that before departing the state, "she could potentially understand something about an America that her Twitter detractors would be unable to grasp, would overlook entirely".

The Murder Narrative

So then we come to the homicide in question – and the referenced day spent by the deceased with the killer and his friends. The author possesses compelling foundational content, and knows hour by hour what occurred as a man named Brandon came to visit Brittney after meeting her on an app where she sold sex pictures. He sought a sexual encounter but seems affably to have spent the day in the company of her associates, wandering about getting his car mended and covering the cost of food and substances, before being shot by her romantic interest a man named Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has repeatedly received inpatient care for fits of anger.

Fascination and Incompletion

Catt gets obsessed by the story, and I found myself captivated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards accurate chronicling and audacious rule-breaking wrestle in this part. However, I would have preferred her to delve deeper into her personal fixations here. The most interesting character is Brittney, who gains dimension in part due to the protagonist's connection to her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman spiraling out of control in a troubled, forgotten town. The author informs us that Catt speaks to Brittney in prison, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. This entire part feels curiously unresolved, to the extent that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par