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This latest work centers on individuals seeking fresh starts, trying to break free from addictions or harmful partnerships, only to see hope turn into aggression. Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "new beginning", transforming it into intentionally weary through its repetitions. Examples include "He could make a fresh start" and "They chose to begin anew" appear throughout the text. And yet, Kraus herself is embarking on her own fresh start, because this appears a new kind of book – documentarian, truly literary. Yet it turns out to be packed with the same dilemmas and styles as her previous works.

From Unplanned Author to Cult Classic

Kraus started out as an visual artist who entered the literary world unintentionally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, structured as missives to a distant beloved, elevating intimate women's literature from self-debasement into assassination. She persisted as a writer, but the following three fascinating and rebarbative novels lacked the shock and immediacy that the correspondence format imparted to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her identity as a nonconformist creator who had turned into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was considerable focus on housing investments. It is logical that she now wants to explore different types of content, directing her gaze to other people's stories, at a moment when she asserts that contemporary political climate renders personal narrative redundant.

Multiple Generations, One Unescapable Past

The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, spanning several time periods – none able to break free from their pasts. The book includes the tale of a couple named Emma and Jasper, representations of the author's parents, relocating from the New York borough to the Connecticut countryside. Additionally the account of Kraus, in the persona of Catt Greene, confronting the late recognition of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction her husband Paul. The third thread involves the account of a killing of one troubled youth by another in a locality long abandoned by forward-thinking policies only a short distance from Catt's rural residence in a remote part of Minnesota.

As a reader drawn to polished prose of the sort Kraus tends to eschew, I was enchanted by the literary tone of the first section.

Being a reader who favors precise prose of the variety that the author usually avoids, I was captivated by the storytelling approach of the first section. There is a fresh level of observation that makes room for minutiae, like the pail that the young Catt frees from the ice at the start of the story, assisted by her adored dad. "Look, an ice toy!" she declares; "a great plaything", he replies, "the elliptical meanings of words circulating in their speech like piece candy". She tells Emma's narrative with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not entirely her own."

Letdown and Fragmentation

I was fated to feel let down when I wished this new voice could last out the book. The author states here that she is annoyed by the satisfaction those who appreciate polished prose have taken from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disruption, to the messy artistic approach she has in common with her idol author Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her previous novels comes back in the second segment. Catt Greene is trying to renovate three dozen dilapidated units in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while moving between Minnesota and LA, unable to aid Paul curb his addiction. She is overwhelmed as her spouse transitions between low-resource employment as an addiction therapist in a environment propelled by the hostility and dread that drives a political win. There are several pages about Catt being cancelled on a platform, her listed profession modified from "author" to "real estate holder" on Wikipedia. She still gives the impression to care a little too much about this. At one point she says that she's looking into the killing so that before leaving Minnesota, "she may grasp something about an the nation that her social media opponents would fail to comprehend, would not even see".

The Homicide Account

Then we reach to the homicide in question – and the referenced day spent by the murdered individual with the killer and his friends. The author possesses excellent raw material, and knows hour by hour what transpired when Brandon came to meet Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she sold sex pictures. He was hoping for sex but appears congenially to have passed the day with her companions, wandering about getting his car mended and funding treats and narcotics, before being shot by Brittney's partner Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has frequently been hospitalised for aggressive outbursts.

Preoccupation and Open Ends

Catt develops an obsession by the narrative, and I was fascinated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards responsible documentation and reckless transgression tussle in this section. Yet I wished her to go further into her personal fixations here. The compelling persona is the character Brittney, who comes alive partly through the protagonist's connection to her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman going off the rails in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus tells us that Catt converses with Brittney in prison, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. This entire part feels curiously unresolved, to the point that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par