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This latest work is populated with protagonists chasing after fresh starts, struggling to escape addictions or toxic relationships, only to find hope curdling into aggression. Kraus frequently uses the phrase "fresh start", transforming it into intentionally weary through recurring use. Examples include "He could make a fresh start" and "They chose to begin anew" recur in the narrative. And yet, the author herself seems to be making her own fresh start, because this seems a different type of work – observational, genuinely novelistic. However it proves to be filled with the recurring issues and approaches as her previous works.

From Unplanned Author to Renowned Book

The writer started out as an 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, transforming intimate women's literature from self-debasement into defiance. She continued writing, but the following three fascinating and rebarbative novels did not possess the shock and immediacy that the letter form imparted to the tone of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her position as a renegade artist who had evolved into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was considerable focus on real estate deals. It makes sense that she presently aims to try out new kinds of material, directing her gaze to other people's stories, at a time when she claims that Trumpian politics renders personal narrative unnecessary.

Several Eras, Shared Inescapable History

The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, encompassing multiple eras – all unable to escape their backgrounds. We encounter the narrative about a couple named Emma and Jasper, based on the author's parents, moving from the urban environment to the Connecticut countryside. Then there is the account of Kraus, in the persona of Catt Greene, confronting the late recognition of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse Paul. Finally the story of the murder 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.

For this reader drawn to refined literature of the type Kraus typically rejects, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the opening part.

As someone who reads who appreciates honed writing of the variety that Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was won over by the novelistic voice of the opening segment. It possesses a new quality of attentiveness that accommodates minutiae, like the pail that the protagonist as a child dislodges from ice at the beginning of the narrative, helped by her cherished parent. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she exclaims; "a lovely toy", he responds, "the ambiguous meanings of language tumbling in their mouths like sweet treats". The author narrates the tale of Emma with interest and closeness. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not precisely her dream."

Disappointment and Disjunction

I was destined to be disappointed when I hoped this new voice could continue through the novel. Kraus says here that she is annoyed by 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 blankness and repetitiveness of her previous novels returns in the second segment. The protagonist is working on refurbishing 36 run-down apartments in the city's most challenging districts while traveling between Minnesota and LA, failing to help her husband control his drinking. She is overwhelmed as her spouse cycles through low-resource employment as an addiction therapist in a society fueled by the hostility and dread that powers a political win. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt being cancelled on a platform, her professional designation altered from "novelist" to "real estate holder" on Wikipedia. The author still appears to invest excessive emotion about this. In a moment she remarks that she's researching the homicide so that before exiting the region, "she could potentially understand something about an the United States that her social media opponents would fail to comprehend, would not even perceive".

The Murder Narrative

So then we come to the murder itself – and the referenced day spent by the deceased with the murderer and his companions. The author possesses great source material, and details moment by moment what occurred as a man named Brandon came to meet Brittney after connecting via an application where she offered adult photos. He anticipated intimacy but seems affably to have spent the day in the company of her associates, loitering fixing his automobile and funding treats and narcotics, before being shot by her romantic interest Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has repeatedly received inpatient care for fits of anger.

Obsession and Unfinished Business

The protagonist becomes fixated by the story, and I was intrigued by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards accurate chronicling and reckless transgression tussle in this section. Yet I wished her to go further into her individual preoccupations here. The standout figure is the character Brittney, who comes alive in part due to the protagonist's connection to her – another bright, bullied girl derailing in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus notes that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in detention, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. This entire part feels curiously unresolved, to the extent that her narrative ends almost mid-par