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This latest work centers on characters chasing after fresh starts, struggling to escape addictions or abusive marriages, only to witness hope devolve into conflict. Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "fresh start", transforming it into willfully cynical through constant reiteration. Examples include "He could make a fresh start" and "They decided to make a fresh start" recur in the story. And yet, she appears to be undertaking her own fresh start, because this appears a novel form of writing – observational, authentically narrative. However it reveals itself to be laden with the familiar conflicts and styles as earlier books.

From Accidental Writer to Cult Classic

Kraus started out as an creative who entered the literary world unintentionally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, made up of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, elevating personal female narrative from abjection into rebellion. She kept producing books, but the following three engaging and challenging novels missed the power and directness that the letter form imparted to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her identity as a renegade artist who had become a major property owner, so there was considerable focus on real estate deals. It is logical that she presently aims to try out fresh narrative sources, turning outward to the experiences of others, at a time when she asserts that Trumpian politics turns intimate literature obsolete.

Three Generations, Shared Inescapable History

The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, spanning multiple eras – each trapped by their backgrounds. The book includes the tale of a couple named Emma and Jasper, versions of her own mother and father, moving from the New York borough to a pastoral setting. Then there is the narrative of the author, in the character of protagonist Catt Greene, grappling with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse her husband Paul. And there is the narrative of a homicide of one lost young man by another in a town largely deserted by liberal ideals only a short distance from Catt's rural residence in rural Minnesota.

For this reader drawn to polished prose of the type the author herself often avoids, I was seduced by the narrative style of the opening part.

Being a reader drawn to precise prose of the kind that Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the first section. There is a fresh level of observation that accommodates minutiae, like the container that the young Catt frees from the ice at the start of the story, assisted by her beloved father. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she declares; "a great plaything", he answers, "the ambiguous meanings of language rolling around in their mouths like piece candy". Kraus writes Emma's story with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not entirely her own."

Disappointment and Disjunction

I was fated to feel let down when I wished this different style could continue through the novel. Kraus says here that she is annoyed by the satisfaction those who appreciate polished prose have gotten from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disruption, to the untidy aesthetics she shares with her idol Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her previous novels returns in the central part. The protagonist is attempting to do up multiple decrepit residences in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while moving between the Midwest and the West Coast, unsuccessful in assisting Paul control his drinking. She feels helpless as Paul cycles through poorly supported positions as an addiction therapist in a world fueled by the anger and fear that underpins an electoral success. A significant portion discusses about Catt being cancelled on a platform, her listed profession modified from "novelist" to "real estate holder" on Wikipedia. The author still appears to be overly concerned about this. On one occasion she states that she's looking into the killing so that before departing the state, "she may grasp something about an America that her Twitter detractors would fail to comprehend, would not even perceive".

The Killing Story

So then we come to the murder itself – and the eponymous day experienced by the deceased with the murderer and his companions. Kraus utilizes great source material, and reconstructs step by step what transpired when Brandon came to see Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she sold sex pictures. He anticipated intimacy but seems amiably to have occupied the day with her companions, wandering about getting his car mended and paying for snacks and drugs, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's partner Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has often been institutionalized for violent rage.

Obsession and Unfinished Business

Catt gets obsessed by the narrative, and I was fascinated by the way that her twin drives towards accurate chronicling and daring boundary-pushing tussle in this section. Yet I wished her to go further into her individual preoccupations here. The standout figure is Brittney herself, who comes alive partly through Catt's identification with her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual derailing in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus tells us that Catt speaks to Brittney in prison, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The whole section feels oddly unfinished, to the degree that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par