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The new book features individuals pursuing new beginnings, trying to break free from addictions or toxic relationships, only to see hope turn into violence. The author frequently uses the phrase "new beginning", transforming it into willfully cynical through its repetitions. Phrases such as "He could make a fresh start" and "They chose to begin anew" recur in the text. Meanwhile, she is embarking on her own fresh start, as this seems a novel form of writing – observational, truly literary. Yet it turns out to be packed with the familiar conflicts and approaches as past novels.

From Accidental Writer to Renowned Book

Kraus began as an creative who transitioned to writing almost accidentally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, structured as missives to a distant beloved, elevating confessional female writing from abjection into defiance. She persisted as a writer, but the three subsequent compelling and abrasive novels lacked the impact and rawness that the epistolary style imparted to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her position as a renegade artist who had turned into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was much discussion on real estate deals. It is logical that she currently desires to experiment with fresh narrative sources, turning outward to other people's stories, at a moment when she asserts that Trumpian politics renders personal narrative unnecessary.

Several Eras, Collective Unavoidable Background

The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, encompassing multiple eras – none able to break free from their pasts. There is the story of Emma and Jasper, representations of her own mother and father, moving from the urban environment to a pastoral setting. Then there is the story of Kraus herself, in the guise of protagonist Catt Greene, reckoning with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her substance-dependent spouse her husband Paul. Finally the story of the murder of one troubled youth by another in a locality mostly forsaken by progressive politics only 80 miles from Catt's cottage in rural Minnesota.

For this reader attracted to polished prose of the type the author herself typically rejects, I was seduced by the narrative style of the first section.

Being a reader who appreciates precise prose of the style that Kraus usually avoids, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the first section. It exhibits a novel degree of detail that accommodates small details, like the container that the young Catt frees from the ice at the opening of the book, helped by her cherished parent. "I found an ice toy!" she says; "a great plaything", he replies, "the ambiguous meanings of language circulating in their speech like piece candy". Kraus writes Emma's narrative with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not hers, exactly."

Frustration and Disruption

I was fated to feel let down when I expected this new voice could persist to the end. Kraus notes here that she is annoyed by the pleasure those who appreciate polished prose have derived from I Love Dick; she's committed to disjunction, to the unpolished style she has in common with her inspiration author Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her past books reasserts itself in the second segment. Catt is attempting to do up multiple decrepit residences in the city's most challenging districts while shuttling between Minnesota and LA, unable to aid Paul curb his addiction. She feels helpless as Paul cycles through low-resource employment as an recovery specialist in a society fueled by the anger and fear that underpins an electoral success. Multiple pages are devoted about the protagonist facing cancellation on Twitter, her occupation changed from "novelist" to "property owner" on a reference site. She still gives the impression to care a little too much about this. On one occasion she says that she's investigating the murder so that before leaving Minnesota, "she may grasp something about an the nation that her social media opponents would not understand, would not even see".

The Killing Story

Then we reach to the actual killing – and the titular day passed by the murdered individual with the perpetrator and his associates. Kraus has excellent raw material, and reconstructs step by step what transpired when the victim Brandon came to see Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she marketed explicit images. He sought a sexual encounter but seems amiably to have occupied the day in the company of her associates, wandering about getting his car mended and funding treats and narcotics, before being murdered by Brittney's partner a man named Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has often been institutionalized for aggressive outbursts.

Fascination and Incompletion

Catt gets obsessed by the account, and I was fascinated by the way that her twin drives towards ethical reporting and daring boundary-pushing clash in this segment. However, I would have preferred her to explore more thoroughly her personal fixations here. The standout figure is the character Brittney, who becomes vivid in part due to Catt seeing herself in her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual spiraling out of control in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus tells us that Catt speaks to Brittney in detention, but she fails to enact these dialogues. This entire part feels curiously unresolved, to the extent that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par