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This latest work centers on characters pursuing new beginnings, struggling to escape drugs or harmful partnerships, only to witness hope devolve into aggression. The author repeatedly invokes the phrase "new beginning", making it willfully cynical through recurring use. Examples include "He aimed to start over" and "They decided to make a fresh start" recur in the narrative. At the same time, the author herself seems to be making her own fresh start, because this seems a different type of work – documentarian, authentically narrative. But then it reveals itself to be packed with the familiar conflicts and styles as earlier books.

From Chance Novelist to Cult Classic

The writer started out as an creative who entered the literary world almost accidentally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, made up of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, elevating personal female narrative from humiliation into rebellion. She continued writing, but the next trio of fascinating and rebarbative novels missed the impact and rawness that the correspondence format imparted to the narrative 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 is logical that she currently desires to experiment with new kinds of material, looking outwards to other people's stories, at a time when she states that current political era renders personal narrative redundant.

Three Generations, One Unescapable Past

The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, covering three generations – each trapped by their histories. There is the tale of Emma and Jasper, representations of her own mother and father, relocating from the New York borough to the Connecticut countryside. Then there is the story of Kraus herself, in the character of protagonist Catt Greene, grappling with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction her husband Paul. Finally the narrative of a homicide of one troubled youth by another in a town long abandoned by progressive politics only 80 miles from the protagonist's home in the Minnesota countryside.

From my perspective as a reader attracted to polished prose of the kind Kraus typically rejects, I was enchanted by the novelistic voice of the initial segment.

As a reader who favors honed writing of the kind that the author often disregards, I was won over by the storytelling approach of the first section. There is a novel degree of detail that allows space for small details, like the bucket that the youthful Catt frees from the ice at the beginning of the narrative, assisted by her cherished parent. "I found an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a nice toy", he answers, "the elliptical meanings of words rolling around in their mouths like sweet treats". Kraus writes Emma's narrative with interest and closeness. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not entirely her own."

Letdown and Fragmentation

I was fated to feel let down when I expected this different style could persist to the end. Kraus says here that she is annoyed by the pleasure those who appreciate polished prose have gotten from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to fragmentation, to the untidy aesthetics she has in common with her inspiration Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her earlier works comes back in the second segment. The protagonist is attempting to do up three dozen dilapidated units in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while traveling between Minnesota and LA, failing to help Paul manage his alcohol use. She experiences powerlessness as her spouse transitions between underfunded jobs as an recovery specialist in a world propelled by the rage and anxiety that drives a political win. There are several pages about Catt's social media ostracism on social media, her listed profession modified from "author" to "property owner" on a reference site. The author still appears to care a little too much about this. On one occasion she says that she's investigating the murder so that before exiting the region, "she might be able to learn something about an the nation that her social media opponents would fail to comprehend, would not even see".

The Killing Story

So then we come to the homicide in question – and the titular day spent by the murdered individual with the killer and his friends. Kraus utilizes compelling foundational content, and reconstructs step by step what transpired when a man named Brandon came to meet Brittney after meeting her on an app where she offered adult photos. He sought a sexual encounter but appears congenially to have passed the day in the company of her associates, wandering about fixing his automobile and covering the cost of food and substances, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has repeatedly received inpatient care for violent rage.

Fascination and Incompletion

Catt develops an obsession by the story, and I was intrigued by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards ethical reporting and reckless transgression clash in this segment. But I'd have liked her to explore more thoroughly her personal fixations here. The compelling persona is the character Brittney, who comes alive partially because of Catt's identification with her – another bright, bullied girl going off the rails in a struggling, neglected community. The author informs us that Catt speaks to Brittney in detention, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. This entire part feels curiously unresolved, to the degree that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par