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The new book features characters chasing after new beginnings, trying to break free from drugs or harmful partnerships, only to witness hope devolve into violence. The author often employs the phrase "new beginning", rendering it willfully cynical through its repetitions. Sentences like "He could make a fresh start" and "They chose to begin anew" appear throughout the story. And yet, she appears to be undertaking her personal new beginning, because this seems a different type of work – observational, truly literary. But then it proves to be filled with the same dilemmas and styles as past novels.

From Unplanned Author to Renowned Book

Kraus was originally an artist who entered the literary world somewhat by chance with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, structured as missives to a distant beloved, elevating personal female narrative from abjection into assassination. She continued writing, but the next trio of engaging and challenging novels lacked the impact and rawness that the correspondence format infused into the voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her identity as a renegade artist who had become a major property owner, so there was significant attention on property transactions. It is logical that she currently desires to experiment with new kinds of material, turning outward to the experiences of others, at a time when she asserts 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, covering three generations – all unable to escape their backgrounds. We encounter the story of characters Emma and Jasper, versions of her own mother and father, transitioning from the New York borough to a pastoral setting. There is the story of Kraus herself, in the persona of Catt Greene, reckoning with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction a man named Paul. And there is the story of the murder of one directionless individual by another in a town largely deserted by liberal ideals only 80 miles from Catt's cottage in the Minnesota countryside.

For this reader drawn to refined literature of the type the author herself often avoids, I was captivated by the literary tone of the opening part.

As someone who reads who appreciates precise prose of the variety that Kraus herself usually avoids, I was won over by the literary tone of the initial part. It exhibits a new quality of attentiveness that accommodates trivial aspects, like the container that the young Catt frees from the ice at the opening of the book, aided by her adored dad. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she says; "a lovely toy", he responds, "the elliptical meanings of words rolling around in their mouths like hard candy". Kraus writes the tale of Emma with curiosity and intimacy. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not hers, exactly."

Letdown and Fragmentation

I was fated to feel let down when I expected this fresh tone could continue through the novel. Kraus notes here that she dislikes the satisfaction audiences such as myself have taken from I Love Dick; she's devoted to fragmentation, to the unpolished style she shares with her hero author Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her earlier works returns in the central part. Catt is working on refurbishing multiple decrepit residences in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while traveling between Minnesota and LA, unsuccessful in assisting her husband control his drinking. She experiences powerlessness as Paul transitions between underfunded jobs as an recovery specialist in a environment propelled by the rage and anxiety that drives an electoral success. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt's social media ostracism on Twitter, her listed profession modified from "writer" to "property owner" on Wikipedia. The author still appears to care a little too much about this. In a moment she remarks that she's investigating the murder so that before departing the state, "she might be able to learn something about an the United States that her social media opponents would not understand, would overlook entirely".

The Murder Narrative

Then we reach to the murder itself – and the titular day spent by the murdered individual with the perpetrator and his companions. Kraus utilizes great source material, and reconstructs step by step what transpired when the victim Brandon came to see Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she marketed explicit images. He was hoping for sex but appears congenially to have passed the day in the company of her associates, mooching around getting his car mended and covering the cost of food and substances, before being murdered by her romantic interest a man named Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has frequently been hospitalised for aggressive outbursts.

Preoccupation and Open Ends

Catt gets obsessed by the narrative, and I was intrigued by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards ethical reporting and audacious rule-breaking clash in this segment. However, I would have preferred her to delve deeper into her personal fixations here. The standout figure is Brittney herself, who becomes vivid partly through the protagonist's connection to her – another bright, bullied girl going off the rails in a struggling, neglected community. The author informs us that Catt speaks to Brittney in jail, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. This entire part feels oddly unfinished, to the extent that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par