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The new book centers on characters seeking new beginnings, trying to break free from drugs or harmful partnerships, only to find hope curdling into violence. Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "fresh start", making it intentionally weary through recurring use. Examples include "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They decided to make a fresh start" are scattered across the text. Meanwhile, the author herself is embarking on her own fresh start, because this appears a different type of work – documentarian, authentically narrative. However it proves to be laden with the familiar conflicts and approaches as past novels.

From Accidental Writer to Iconic Work

The writer was originally an visual artist who entered the literary world unintentionally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, which was composed of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, converting intimate women's literature from self-debasement into assassination. She kept producing books, but the next trio of compelling and abrasive novels lacked the shock and immediacy that the epistolary style imparted to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her role as a renegade artist who had become a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was considerable focus on property transactions. It makes sense that she currently desires to experiment with different types of content, directing her gaze to external narratives, at a moment when she asserts that contemporary political climate turns intimate literature unnecessary.

Three Generations, Collective Unavoidable Background

The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, encompassing several time periods – all unable to escape their backgrounds. There is the story of a couple named Emma and Jasper, based on her own mother and father, moving from the urban environment to rural Connecticut. Additionally the narrative of the author, in the persona of protagonist Catt Greene, reckoning with the belated success of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction her husband Paul. And there is the narrative of a homicide of one troubled youth by another in a town long abandoned by liberal ideals only 80 miles from the protagonist's home in the Minnesota countryside.

From my perspective as a reader fond of refined literature of the type Kraus typically rejects, I was enchanted by the literary tone of the initial segment.

As a reader drawn to crafted language of the variety that Kraus usually avoids, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the opening segment. It exhibits a new quality of attentiveness that makes room for trivial aspects, like the container that the youthful Catt frees from the ice at the opening of the book, helped by her cherished parent. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she exclaims; "a great plaything", he answers, "the ambiguous meanings of language rolling around in their mouths like piece candy". She tells the tale of Emma with interest and closeness. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not entirely her own."

Disappointment and Disjunction

I was fated to feel let down when I expected this new voice could continue through the novel. Kraus notes here that she dislikes the pleasure those who appreciate polished prose have gotten from I Love Dick; she's devoted to fragmentation, to the untidy aesthetics she has in common with her inspiration Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her past books returns in the middle section. Catt is attempting to do up 36 run-down apartments in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while shuttling between two different states, unsuccessful in assisting her husband control his drinking. She is overwhelmed as Paul transitions between poorly supported positions as an addiction therapist in a society driven by the rage and anxiety that underpins a political win. There are several pages about Catt being cancelled on social media, her listed profession modified from "author" to "real estate holder" on a reference site. She still gives the impression to invest excessive emotion about this. On one occasion she says that she's looking into the killing so that before leaving Minnesota, "she might be able to learn something about an America that her social media opponents would fail to comprehend, would not even perceive".

The Killing Story

Then we reach to the homicide in question – and the eponymous day passed by the victim with the killer and his companions. Kraus has great source material, and details moment by moment what occurred as the victim Brandon came to see Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she marketed explicit images. He sought a sexual encounter but seems amiably to have occupied the day with her companions, wandering about getting his car mended and funding treats and narcotics, before being murdered by her romantic interest Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has frequently been hospitalised for fits of anger.

Preoccupation and Open Ends

Catt develops an obsession by the narrative, and I was fascinated by the way that her twin drives towards ethical reporting and daring boundary-pushing clash in this segment. But I'd have liked her to explore more thoroughly her individual preoccupations here. The compelling persona is Brittney herself, who becomes vivid partially because of Catt's identification with her – another bright, bullied girl spiraling out of control in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus tells us that Catt speaks to Brittney in detention, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. This entire part feels strangely incomplete, to the degree that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par