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This latest work is populated with individuals pursuing new beginnings, trying to break free from drugs or toxic relationships, only to witness hope devolve into aggression. Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "fresh start", making it intentionally weary through constant reiteration. Examples include "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They opted for a clean break" appear throughout the story. At the same time, Kraus herself is embarking on her individual reinvention, as this seems a novel form of writing – documentarian, authentically narrative. However it proves to be packed with the recurring issues and aesthetics as earlier books.

From Accidental Writer to Cult Classic

Kraus began as an visual artist who became a writer almost accidentally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, made up of letters to an unreceptive lover, transforming intimate women's literature from abjection into assassination. She kept producing books, but the following three compelling and abrasive novels did not possess the impact and rawness that the epistolary style brought to the voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her position as a nonconformist creator who had turned into a major property owner, so there was significant attention on housing investments. It follows that she currently desires to explore fresh narrative sources, directing her gaze to the experiences of others, at a moment when she states that contemporary political climate turns intimate literature redundant.

Three Generations, Collective Unavoidable Background

The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, spanning three generations – each trapped by their backgrounds. We encounter the tale of a couple named Emma and Jasper, representations of Kraus's parents, transitioning from the New York borough to a pastoral setting. Then there is the narrative of the author, in the persona of protagonist Catt Greene, confronting the late recognition of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her addict husband Paul. And there is the story of the murder of one troubled youth by another in a town mostly forsaken by forward-thinking policies only a brief drive from the protagonist's home in rural Minnesota.

For this reader drawn to refined literature of the type Kraus tends to eschew, I was captivated by the narrative style of the first section.

Being a reader drawn to precise prose of the kind that the author often disregards, I was won over by the novelistic voice of the first section. It possesses a new quality of attentiveness that allows space for minutiae, like the pail 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 ambiguous meanings of language rolling around in their mouths like sweet treats". Kraus writes the tale of Emma with interest and closeness. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not hers, exactly."

Frustration and Disruption

I was destined to be disappointed when I hoped this different style could last out the book. Kraus says here that she dislikes the satisfaction those who appreciate polished prose have gotten from I Love Dick; she's committed to disruption, to the unpolished style she has in common with her inspiration author Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her past books reasserts itself in the middle section. The protagonist is attempting to do up multiple decrepit residences in the city's most challenging districts while traveling between two different states, unsuccessful in assisting Paul control his drinking. She experiences powerlessness as her spouse transitions between underfunded jobs as an recovery specialist in a world propelled by the hostility and dread that underpins Trump's victory. There are several pages about the protagonist facing cancellation on social media, her occupation changed from "novelist" to "landlord" on the online encyclopedia. She still gives the impression to be overly concerned about this. On one occasion she states that she's researching the homicide so that before leaving Minnesota, "she might be able to learn something about an the United States that her Twitter detractors would fail to comprehend, would not even see".

The Homicide Account

So then we come to the homicide in question – and the eponymous day spent by the murdered individual with the murderer and his associates. Kraus utilizes excellent raw material, and details moment by moment what transpired when a man named Brandon came to visit Brittney after meeting her on an app where she marketed explicit images. He was hoping for sex but appears congenially to have passed the day alongside her friends, wandering about having his vehicle repaired and paying for snacks and drugs, before being shot by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has repeatedly received inpatient care for fits of anger.

Fascination and Incompletion

Catt develops an obsession by the account, and I was fascinated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards ethical reporting and reckless transgression clash in this segment. However, I would have preferred her to explore more thoroughly her own obsessions here. The compelling persona is Brittney, who becomes vivid partially because of the protagonist's connection to her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman derailing in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus tells us that Catt speaks to Brittney in prison, but she fails to enact these dialogues. This entire part feels curiously unresolved, to the degree that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par