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This latest work is populated with protagonists seeking clean slates, attempting to leave behind substance abuse or toxic relationships, only to find hope curdling into conflict. The author repeatedly invokes the phrase "fresh start", rendering it intentionally weary through constant reiteration. Examples include "He could make a fresh start" and "They decided to make a fresh start" recur in the narrative. Meanwhile, the author herself seems to be making her individual reinvention, since this presents as a novel form of writing – observational, truly literary. However it proves to be filled with the recurring issues and approaches as her previous works.

From Unplanned Author to Iconic Work

The writer started out as an creative who became a writer somewhat by chance with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, made up of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, elevating intimate women's literature from abjection into assassination. She persisted as a writer, but the following three engaging and challenging novels lacked the power and directness that the epistolary style imparted to the voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her role as a nonconformist creator who had evolved into a major property owner, so there was significant attention on property transactions. It is logical that she currently desires to try out fresh narrative sources, directing her gaze to external narratives, at a moment when she claims that current political era makes confessional writing unnecessary.

Several Eras, One Unescapable Past

The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, spanning three generations – all unable to escape their backgrounds. We encounter the story of characters Emma and Jasper, representations of her own mother and father, moving from the Bronx to the Connecticut countryside. Then there is the narrative of the author, in the guise of a figure named Catt Greene, reckoning with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction a man named Paul. Finally the narrative of a homicide of one directionless individual by another in a community largely deserted by forward-thinking policies only a brief drive from the protagonist's home in the Minnesota countryside.

From my perspective as a reader attracted to polished prose of the kind the author herself typically rejects, I was captivated by the narrative style of the opening part.

As someone who reads who appreciates crafted language of the style that the author usually avoids, I was captivated by the literary tone of the opening segment. There is a novel degree of detail that allows space for trivial aspects, like the bucket that the youthful Catt dislodges from ice at the beginning of the narrative, assisted by her cherished parent. "I found an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a lovely toy", he answers, "the nuanced interpretations of terms circulating in their speech like piece candy". The author narrates Emma's story with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not entirely her own."

Letdown and Fragmentation

I was fated to feel let down when I wished this different style could continue through the novel. Kraus notes here that she dislikes the satisfaction readers like me have derived from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disjunction, to the messy artistic approach she shares with her hero author Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her past books comes back in the middle section. The protagonist is attempting to do up three dozen dilapidated units in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while shuttling between two different states, failing to help Paul manage his alcohol use. She feels helpless as Paul moves between underfunded jobs as an addiction therapist in a environment propelled by the hostility and dread that underpins Trump's victory. There are several pages about Catt's social media ostracism on social media, her occupation changed from "novelist" to "property owner" on a reference site. Kraus still seems to be overly concerned about this. On one occasion she says that she's looking into the killing so that before exiting the region, "she may grasp something about an the United States that her social media opponents would fail to comprehend, would not even see".

The Killing Story

So then we come to the actual killing – and the referenced day experienced by the murdered individual with the murderer and his associates. Kraus utilizes great source material, and knows hour by hour what occurred as the victim Brandon came to meet Brittney after connecting via an application where she marketed explicit images. He was hoping for sex but appears congenially to have passed the day alongside her friends, loitering having his vehicle repaired and paying for snacks and drugs, before being murdered by her romantic interest Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has frequently been hospitalised for aggressive outbursts.

Fascination and Incompletion

The protagonist becomes fixated by the story, and I was fascinated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards ethical reporting and daring boundary-pushing wrestle in this part. However, I would have preferred her to go further into her personal fixations here. The compelling persona is the character Brittney, who gains dimension in part due to Catt seeing herself in her – another bright, bullied girl derailing in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus tells us that Catt speaks to Brittney in prison, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. This entire part feels oddly unfinished, to the point that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par