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This latest work features individuals seeking new beginnings, struggling to escape drugs or toxic relationships, only to find hope curdling into aggression. The author repeatedly invokes the phrase "fresh start", making it deliberately jaded through constant reiteration. Sentences like "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They decided to make a fresh start" recur in the text. And yet, Kraus herself seems to be making her personal new beginning, because this presents as a different type of work – documentarian, authentically narrative. Yet it proves to be laden with the familiar conflicts and approaches as her previous works.

From Unplanned Author to Renowned Book

Kraus began as an visual artist who became a writer unintentionally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, structured as letters to an unreceptive lover, converting confessional female writing from self-debasement into rebellion. She continued writing, but the next trio of fascinating and rebarbative novels did not possess the power and directness that the correspondence format imparted to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her position as a nonconformist creator who had evolved into a extensive real estate holder, so there was considerable focus on real estate deals. It is logical that she now wants to explore new kinds of material, turning outward to the experiences of others, at a moment when she asserts that contemporary political climate makes confessional writing obsolete.

Multiple Generations, One Unescapable Past

The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, spanning three generations – all unable to escape their pasts. There is the narrative about characters Emma and Jasper, based on her own mother and father, moving from the New York borough to a pastoral setting. Then there is the story of Kraus herself, in the character of protagonist Catt Greene, confronting the late recognition of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her substance-dependent spouse her husband Paul. And there is the story of the murder of one lost young man by another in a town mostly forsaken by forward-thinking policies only a short distance from Catt's cottage in a remote part of Minnesota.

As a reader fond of honed writing of the kind Kraus tends to eschew, I was enchanted by the literary tone of the opening part.

Being a reader who favors crafted language of the kind that Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was won over by the storytelling approach of the opening segment. It exhibits a new quality of attentiveness that accommodates small details, like the bucket that the youthful Catt pries out of frozen water at the beginning of the narrative, aided by her cherished parent. "Look, an ice toy!" she declares; "a great plaything", he replies, "the elliptical meanings of words rolling around in their mouths like piece candy". The author narrates the tale of Emma with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not entirely her own."

Frustration and Disruption

I was bound to become frustrated when I wished this different style could last out the book. Kraus notes here that she dislikes the enjoyment audiences such as myself have gotten from I Love Dick; she's devoted to fragmentation, to the untidy aesthetics she shares with her inspiration writer Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her earlier works reasserts itself in the middle section. Catt is attempting to do up 36 run-down apartments in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while moving between the Midwest and the West Coast, failing to help Paul manage his alcohol use. She experiences powerlessness as Paul transitions between poorly supported positions as an recovery specialist in a society driven by the anger and fear that underpins Trump's victory. There are several pages about the protagonist facing cancellation on social media, her listed profession modified from "novelist" to "real estate holder" on a reference site. She still gives the impression to care a little too much about this. In a moment she states that she's investigating the murder so that before leaving Minnesota, "she could potentially understand something about an the nation that her online critics would be unable to grasp, would overlook entirely".

The Murder Narrative

Thus we arrive to the actual killing – and the referenced day passed by the deceased with the murderer and his associates. Kraus utilizes great source material, and reconstructs step by step what occurred as a man named Brandon came to see Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she marketed explicit images. He sought a sexual encounter but appears congenially to have passed the day with her companions, wandering about having his vehicle repaired and paying for snacks and drugs, before being murdered by her romantic interest a man named Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has frequently been hospitalised for violent rage.

Obsession and Unfinished Business

Catt gets obsessed by the story, and I was fascinated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards accurate chronicling and reckless transgression clash in this segment. However, I would have preferred her to delve deeper into her personal fixations here. The most interesting character is Brittney herself, who comes alive in part due to Catt's identification with her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman derailing in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus tells us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in detention, but she fails to enact these dialogues. This entire part feels strangely incomplete, to the point that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par