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This latest work centers on individuals seeking fresh starts, struggling to escape addictions or harmful partnerships, only to find hope curdling into violence. Kraus frequently uses the phrase "fresh start", transforming it into willfully cynical through its repetitions. Phrases such as "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They chose to begin anew" recur in the narrative. Meanwhile, the author herself is embarking on her personal new beginning, because this seems a different type of work – observational, genuinely novelistic. However it reveals itself to be laden with the familiar conflicts and approaches as her previous works.

From Chance Novelist to Renowned Book

Kraus was originally an visual artist who became a writer somewhat by chance with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, made up of letters to an unreceptive lover, elevating personal female narrative from abjection into assassination. She continued writing, but the following three compelling and abrasive novels lacked the impact and rawness that the epistolary style imparted to the voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her role as a nonconformist creator who had turned into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was much discussion on property transactions. It follows that she presently aims to try out fresh narrative sources, turning outward to external narratives, at a time when she claims that current political era makes confessional writing obsolete.

Three Generations, One Unescapable Past

The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, covering several time periods – all unable to escape their pasts. The book includes the narrative about characters Emma and Jasper, representations of Kraus's parents, transitioning from the urban environment to the Connecticut countryside. Additionally the narrative of the author, in the guise of a figure named Catt Greene, reckoning with the belated success of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse a man named Paul. The third thread involves the narrative of a homicide of one troubled youth by another in a community long abandoned by forward-thinking policies only 80 miles from Catt's rural residence in the Minnesota countryside.

As a reader attracted to polished prose of the type Kraus tends to eschew, I was enchanted by the novelistic voice of the first section.

As someone who reads who appreciates crafted language of the kind that Kraus usually avoids, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the opening segment. It exhibits a novel degree of detail that makes room for minutiae, like the pail that the protagonist as a child pries out of frozen water at the beginning of the narrative, aided by her cherished parent. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she says; "a nice toy", he replies, "the nuanced interpretations of terms circulating in their speech like hard candy". She tells the tale of Emma with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not hers, exactly."

Disappointment and Disjunction

I was bound to become frustrated when I expected this new voice could last out the book. Kraus says here that she is annoyed by the pleasure those who appreciate polished prose have derived from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disruption, to the unpolished style she echoes from her inspiration writer Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her previous novels returns in the middle section. Catt Greene is attempting to do up 36 run-down apartments in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while shuttling between two different states, failing to help her husband curb his addiction. She feels helpless as Paul cycles through poorly supported positions as an substance abuse counselor in a environment driven by the rage and anxiety that powers Trump's victory. There are several pages about Catt's social media ostracism on social media, her occupation changed from "novelist" to "real estate holder" on the online encyclopedia. Kraus still seems 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 might be able to learn something about an America that her online critics would fail to comprehend, would not even see".

The Murder Narrative

Then we reach to the homicide in question – and the titular day spent by the murdered individual with the murderer and his associates. Kraus utilizes great source material, and knows hour by hour what occurred as the victim Brandon came to visit Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she marketed explicit images. He sought a sexual encounter but seems affably to have spent the day with her companions, loitering having his vehicle repaired and funding treats and narcotics, before being killed by gunfire by her romantic interest Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has often been institutionalized for fits of anger.

Preoccupation and Open Ends

Catt develops an obsession by the narrative, and I was intrigued by the way that her twin drives towards accurate chronicling and reckless transgression clash in this segment. However, I would have preferred her to delve deeper into her own obsessions here. The compelling persona is Brittney, who comes alive partly through Catt's identification with her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual derailing in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus tells us that Catt speaks to Brittney in detention, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The whole section feels strangely incomplete, to the extent that her narrative ends almost mid-par