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The new book centers on individuals seeking fresh starts, attempting to leave behind addictions or abusive marriages, only to see hope turn into aggression. The author frequently uses the phrase "new beginning", making it intentionally weary through recurring use. Sentences like "He could make a fresh start" and "They decided to make a fresh start" are scattered across the narrative. Meanwhile, Kraus herself appears to be undertaking her own fresh start, because this seems a different type of work – fact-based, truly literary. But then it turns out to be laden with the same dilemmas and aesthetics as her previous works.

From Chance Novelist to Renowned Book

Kraus was originally an visual artist who entered the literary world unintentionally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, structured as letters to an unreceptive lover, converting intimate women's literature from self-debasement into rebellion. She persisted as a writer, but the next trio of compelling and abrasive novels missed the shock and immediacy that the correspondence format infused into the voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her role as a renegade artist who had turned into a extensive real estate holder, so there was significant attention on housing investments. It makes sense that she presently aims to try out new kinds of material, looking outwards to external narratives, at a period in which she claims that contemporary political climate makes confessional writing obsolete.

Several Eras, Shared Inescapable History

The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, encompassing several time periods – none able to break free from their backgrounds. There is the story of a couple named Emma and Jasper, based on her own mother and father, transitioning from the Bronx to the Connecticut countryside. Additionally the narrative of the author, in the guise of protagonist Catt Greene, reckoning with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse Paul. And there is the narrative of a homicide of one directionless individual by another in a community mostly forsaken by liberal ideals only 80 miles from Catt's cottage in the Minnesota countryside.

From my perspective as a reader attracted to honed writing of the type Kraus herself often avoids, I was seduced by the literary tone of the initial segment.

Being a reader drawn to precise prose of the kind that Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the initial part. There is a new quality of attentiveness that accommodates small details, like the bucket that the youthful Catt dislodges from ice at the start of the story, assisted by her adored dad. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she exclaims; "a great plaything", he replies, "the elliptical meanings of words circulating in their speech like hard candy". The author narrates the tale of Emma with interest and closeness. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not hers, exactly."

Letdown and Fragmentation

I was destined to be disappointed when I wished this new voice could last out the book. The author states here that she is annoyed by the enjoyment those who appreciate polished prose have taken from I Love Dick; she's devoted to fragmentation, to the untidy aesthetics she echoes from her inspiration author Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her past books reasserts itself in the central part. Catt is trying to renovate multiple decrepit residences in the city's most challenging districts while traveling between Minnesota and LA, failing to help Paul control his drinking. She is overwhelmed as Paul cycles through poorly supported positions as an addiction therapist in a world driven by the anger and fear that underpins a political win. Multiple pages are devoted about the protagonist facing cancellation on Twitter, her professional designation altered from "writer" to "real estate holder" on a reference site. The author still appears to care a little too much about this. In a moment she states that she's investigating the murder so that before leaving Minnesota, "she might be able to learn something about an the nation that her Twitter detractors would be unable to grasp, would not even see".

The Killing Story

So then we come to the homicide in question – and the referenced day experienced by the murdered individual with the murderer and his companions. Kraus has great source material, and reconstructs step by step what occurred as Brandon came to see Brittney after connecting via an application where she offered adult photos. He sought a sexual encounter but seems affably to have spent the day with her companions, mooching around getting his car mended and funding treats and narcotics, before being murdered by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has often been institutionalized for fits of anger.

Obsession and Unfinished Business

The protagonist becomes fixated by the narrative, and I found myself captivated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards ethical reporting and daring boundary-pushing clash in this segment. However, I would have preferred her to explore more thoroughly her own obsessions here. The compelling persona is the character Brittney, who becomes vivid in part due to the protagonist's connection to her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual going off the rails in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus tells us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in detention, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The complete segment feels oddly unfinished, to the extent that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par