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The new book features characters pursuing clean slates, attempting to leave behind addictions or harmful partnerships, only to see hope turn into aggression. Kraus frequently uses the phrase "fresh start", making it intentionally weary through recurring use. Examples include "He aimed to start over" and "They decided to make a fresh start" appear throughout the story. Meanwhile, Kraus herself seems to be making her personal new beginning, since this presents as a different type of work – fact-based, authentically narrative. Yet it turns out to be packed with the recurring issues and styles as past novels.

From Accidental Writer to Iconic Work

Kraus was originally an visual artist who became a writer somewhat by chance with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, which was composed of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, converting intimate women's literature from abjection into defiance. She kept producing books, but the next trio of fascinating and rebarbative novels lacked the impact and rawness that the letter form brought to the voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her role as a nonconformist creator who had become a major property owner, so there was much discussion on real estate deals. It follows that she now wants to experiment with different types of content, turning outward to other people's stories, at a time when she states that contemporary political climate renders personal narrative obsolete.

Several Eras, Shared Inescapable History

The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, spanning three generations – none able to break free from their histories. We encounter the story of Emma and Jasper, representations of the author's parents, transitioning from the Bronx to the Connecticut countryside. There is the account of Kraus, in the character of Catt Greene, grappling with the belated success of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction her husband Paul. And there is the narrative of a homicide of one directionless individual by another in a community largely deserted by forward-thinking policies only a short distance from the protagonist's home in a remote part of Minnesota.

For this reader drawn to honed writing of the sort Kraus herself typically rejects, I was captivated by the literary tone of the initial segment.

Being a reader who favors honed writing of the variety that Kraus tends to eschew, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the initial part. It exhibits a novel degree of detail that accommodates small details, like the bucket that the young Catt frees from the ice at the start of the story, helped by her adored dad. "Look, an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a great plaything", he responds, "the nuanced interpretations of terms tumbling in their mouths like hard candy". She tells Emma's narrative with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not entirely her own."

Disappointment and Disjunction

I was destined to be disappointed when I wished this different style could last out the book. The author states here that she resents the pleasure audiences such as myself have gotten from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to fragmentation, to the untidy aesthetics she shares with her idol writer Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her earlier works comes back in the second segment. Catt Greene is working on refurbishing multiple decrepit residences in the city's most challenging districts while shuttling between two different states, unable to aid Paul control his drinking. She feels helpless as Paul cycles through poorly supported positions as an recovery specialist in a world driven by the anger and fear that powers Trump's victory. There are several pages about Catt's social media ostracism on social media, her professional designation altered from "author" to "real estate holder" on the online encyclopedia. She still gives the impression to invest excessive emotion about this. In a moment she says that she's researching the homicide so that before exiting the region, "she might be able to learn something about an the nation that her Twitter detractors would fail to comprehend, would overlook entirely".

The Murder Narrative

Then we reach to the actual killing – and the titular day experienced by the victim with the killer and his companions. Kraus has excellent raw material, and reconstructs step by step what transpired when the victim Brandon came to visit Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she marketed explicit images. He anticipated intimacy but appears congenially to have passed the day alongside her friends, wandering about fixing his automobile and covering the cost of food and substances, before being murdered by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has frequently been hospitalised for fits of anger.

Obsession and Unfinished Business

Catt gets obsessed by the narrative, and I was intrigued by the way that her twin drives towards responsible documentation and reckless transgression wrestle in this part. But I'd have liked her to delve deeper into her own obsessions here. The compelling persona is Brittney herself, who gains dimension partly through Catt seeing herself in her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual going off the rails in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus notes that Catt converses with Brittney in detention, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The complete segment feels curiously unresolved, to the extent that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par