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The new book features individuals chasing after clean slates, attempting to leave behind substance abuse or abusive marriages, only to find hope curdling into conflict. The author repeatedly invokes the phrase "new beginning", making it willfully cynical through constant reiteration. Phrases such as "He aimed to start over" and "They decided to make a fresh start" recur in the text. At the same time, the author herself appears to be undertaking her individual reinvention, because this appears a new kind of book – observational, truly literary. Yet it proves to be packed with the familiar conflicts and aesthetics as past novels.

From Unplanned Author to Iconic Work

Kraus started out as an visual artist who transitioned to writing almost accidentally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, made up of missives to a distant beloved, elevating intimate women's literature from abjection into defiance. She continued writing, but the three subsequent compelling and abrasive novels missed the impact and rawness that the correspondence format infused into the tone of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her identity as a renegade artist who had turned into a major property owner, so there was significant attention on property transactions. It makes sense that she currently desires to explore fresh narrative sources, directing her gaze to other people's stories, at a time when she claims that Trumpian politics renders personal narrative unnecessary.

Several Eras, One Unescapable Past

The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, covering three generations – each trapped by their histories. We encounter the story of characters Emma and Jasper, representations of the author's parents, moving from the urban environment to a pastoral setting. Additionally the account of Kraus, in the guise of protagonist Catt Greene, confronting the late recognition of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her addict husband a man named Paul. Finally the account of a killing of one directionless individual by another in a community largely deserted by liberal ideals only a short distance from Catt's rural residence in rural Minnesota.

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

As a reader who favors crafted language of the variety that Kraus usually avoids, I was won over by the storytelling approach of the first section. It exhibits a new quality of attentiveness that allows space for minutiae, like the container that the young Catt dislodges from ice at the beginning of the narrative, aided by her adored dad. "I found an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a nice toy", he answers, "the nuanced interpretations of terms rolling around in their mouths like sweet treats". She tells Emma's narrative with inquiry and familiarity. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not hers, exactly."

Disappointment and Disjunction

I was destined to be disappointed when I hoped this different style could persist to the end. Kraus notes here that she is annoyed by the enjoyment audiences such as myself have derived from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disjunction, to the untidy aesthetics she has in common with her idol Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her previous novels reasserts itself in the middle section. Catt is attempting to do up 36 run-down apartments in the city's most challenging districts while traveling between two different states, unable to aid Paul manage his alcohol use. She is overwhelmed as Paul moves between low-resource employment as an substance abuse counselor in a society propelled by the anger and fear that underpins Trump's victory. A significant portion discusses about Catt being cancelled on a platform, her professional designation altered from "writer" to "property owner" on the online encyclopedia. She still gives the impression to be overly concerned about this. In a moment she says that she's investigating the murder so that before exiting the region, "she could potentially understand something about an America that her social media opponents would not understand, would not even perceive".

The Murder Narrative

Thus we arrive to the actual killing – and the titular day passed by the deceased with the killer and his friends. Kraus utilizes excellent raw material, and reconstructs step by step what occurred as a man named Brandon came to see Brittney after meeting her on an app where she offered adult photos. He anticipated intimacy but appears congenially to have passed the day alongside her friends, wandering about having his vehicle repaired and paying for snacks and drugs, before being shot by Brittney's boyfriend a man named Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has frequently been hospitalised for violent rage.

Obsession and Unfinished Business

Catt gets obsessed by the account, and I was intrigued by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards ethical reporting and reckless transgression clash in this segment. However, I would have preferred her to delve deeper into her individual preoccupations here. The most interesting character is Brittney, who comes alive partially because of Catt seeing herself in her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual derailing in a struggling, neglected community. The author informs us that Catt converses with Brittney in jail, but she fails to enact these dialogues. This entire part feels strangely incomplete, to the extent that her narrative ends almost mid-par