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The new book is populated with protagonists seeking fresh starts, trying to break free from substance abuse or toxic relationships, only to find hope curdling into conflict. Kraus frequently uses the phrase "new beginning", transforming it into deliberately jaded through its repetitions. Examples include "He aimed to start over" and "They opted for a clean break" appear throughout the text. At the same time, Kraus herself is embarking on her own fresh start, because this appears a different type of work – observational, authentically narrative. Yet it reveals itself to be laden with the same dilemmas and approaches as past novels.

From Unplanned Author to Cult Classic

Kraus began as an visual artist who transitioned to writing unintentionally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, structured as letters to an unreceptive lover, elevating confessional female writing from humiliation into defiance. She continued writing, but the next trio of engaging and challenging novels missed the impact and rawness that the epistolary style brought to the voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her identity as a renegade artist who had become a major property owner, so there was much discussion on property transactions. It makes sense that she presently aims to explore fresh narrative sources, looking outwards to other people's stories, at a period in which she asserts that Trumpian politics makes confessional writing unnecessary.

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 backgrounds. We encounter the story of Emma and Jasper, based on her own mother and father, moving from the Bronx to a pastoral setting. Additionally the story of Kraus herself, in the character of a figure named Catt Greene, grappling with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her partner struggling with addiction her husband Paul. Finally the story of the murder of one troubled youth by another in a community mostly forsaken by liberal ideals only a short distance from Catt's rural residence in a remote part of Minnesota.

For this reader fond of honed writing of the type Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was captivated by the narrative style of the opening part.

Being a reader who favors crafted language of the kind that Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was won over by the novelistic voice of the opening segment. It exhibits a new quality of attentiveness that makes room for minutiae, like the pail that the young Catt frees from the ice at the beginning of the narrative, helped by her beloved father. "Look, an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a nice toy", he responds, "the nuanced interpretations of terms circulating in their speech like sweet treats". Kraus writes the tale of Emma with inquiry and familiarity. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not entirely her own."

Letdown and Fragmentation

I was bound to become frustrated when I hoped this new voice could continue through the novel. Kraus notes here that she resents the pleasure readers like me have derived from I Love Dick; she's devoted to fragmentation, to the unpolished style she echoes from her hero Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her previous novels reasserts itself in the middle section. The protagonist is working on refurbishing multiple decrepit residences in the city's most challenging districts while moving between the Midwest and the West Coast, unable to aid Paul manage his alcohol use. She feels helpless as Paul cycles through underfunded jobs as an recovery specialist in a society propelled by the hostility and dread that powers an electoral success. There are several pages about Catt being cancelled on social media, her occupation changed from "writer" to "property owner" on the online encyclopedia. The author still appears to care a little too much about this. At one point she remarks that she's researching the homicide so that before exiting the region, "she may grasp something about an the nation that her social media opponents would not understand, would not even perceive".

The Murder Narrative

Thus we arrive to the murder itself – and the eponymous day spent by the victim with the killer and his associates. The author possesses great source material, and reconstructs step by step what transpired when a man named Brandon came to visit Brittney after meeting her on an app where she offered adult photos. He was hoping for sex but seems affably to have spent the day alongside her friends, mooching around getting his car mended 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.

Obsession and Unfinished Business

Catt develops an obsession by the account, and I found myself captivated by the way that her twin drives towards responsible documentation and daring boundary-pushing wrestle in this part. However, I would have preferred her to explore more thoroughly her personal fixations here. The most interesting character is the character Brittney, who gains dimension in part due to Catt's identification with her – another bright, bullied girl spiraling out of control in a troubled, forgotten town. The author informs us that Catt converses with Brittney in detention, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. This entire part feels curiously unresolved, to the degree that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par