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This latest work features individuals seeking new beginnings, trying to break free from drugs or harmful partnerships, only to find hope curdling into aggression. Kraus often employs the phrase "fresh start", rendering it deliberately jaded through constant reiteration. Phrases such as "He could make a fresh start" and "They chose to begin anew" are scattered across the text. At the same time, Kraus herself seems to be making her individual reinvention, because this seems a different type of work – observational, truly literary. But then it turns out to be packed with the same dilemmas and styles as earlier books.

From Unplanned Author to Iconic Work

Kraus began as an visual artist who entered the literary world somewhat by chance with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, which was composed of letters to an unreceptive lover, converting confessional female writing from humiliation into rebellion. She persisted as a writer, but the following three compelling and abrasive novels missed the power and directness that the letter form imparted to the voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her identity as a renegade artist who had evolved into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was much discussion on real estate deals. It is logical that she now wants to try out different types of content, looking outwards to the experiences of others, at a period in which she claims that Trumpian politics makes confessional writing redundant.

Several Eras, One Unescapable Past

The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, encompassing several time periods – all unable to escape their histories. The book includes the story of characters Emma and Jasper, representations of her own mother and father, moving from the urban environment to a pastoral setting. There is the narrative of the author, in the character of Catt Greene, reckoning with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction a man named Paul. The third thread involves the narrative of a homicide of one troubled youth by another in a locality largely deserted by forward-thinking policies only a brief drive from Catt's cottage in a remote part of Minnesota.

As a reader fond of polished prose of the type Kraus herself often avoids, I was enchanted by the novelistic voice of the opening part.

As someone who reads who favors crafted language of the style that Kraus herself often disregards, I was won over by the storytelling approach of the opening segment. It possesses a new quality of attentiveness that makes room for minutiae, like the pail that the protagonist as a child frees from the ice at the beginning of the narrative, helped by her beloved father. "Look, an ice toy!" she says; "a lovely toy", he replies, "the ambiguous meanings of language rolling around in their mouths like sweet treats". The author narrates Emma's narrative with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not precisely her dream."

Letdown and Fragmentation

I was fated to feel let down when I hoped this fresh tone could continue through the novel. Kraus says here that she is annoyed by the enjoyment audiences such as myself have gotten from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disjunction, to the untidy aesthetics she echoes from her inspiration author Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her previous novels returns in the second segment. Catt is attempting to do up three dozen dilapidated units in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while shuttling between the Midwest and the West Coast, unable to aid Paul control his drinking. She feels helpless as Paul cycles through low-resource employment as an substance abuse counselor in a environment propelled by the anger and fear that powers Trump's victory. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt being cancelled on social media, her occupation changed from "author" to "landlord" on the online encyclopedia. She still gives the impression to be overly concerned about this. On one occasion she remarks that she's investigating the murder so that before departing the state, "she might be able to learn something about an America that her social media opponents would fail to comprehend, would overlook entirely".

The Killing Story

So then we come to the homicide in question – and the eponymous day spent by the victim with the killer and his friends. Kraus utilizes great source material, and details moment by moment what happened when Brandon came to visit Brittney after connecting via an application where she marketed explicit images. He was hoping for sex but seems amiably to have occupied the day alongside her friends, loitering fixing his automobile and covering the cost of food and substances, before being murdered by her romantic interest Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has repeatedly received inpatient care for violent rage.

Obsession and Unfinished Business

Catt gets obsessed by the account, and I was intrigued by the way that her twin drives towards responsible documentation and reckless transgression clash in this segment. Yet I wished her to go further into her individual preoccupations here. The compelling persona is Brittney, who comes alive partly through the protagonist's connection to her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual going off the rails in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus notes that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in jail, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The complete segment feels strangely incomplete, to the extent that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par