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The new book centers on characters pursuing fresh starts, struggling to escape addictions or toxic relationships, only to witness hope devolve into violence. Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "fresh start", making it intentionally weary through constant reiteration. Phrases such as "He aimed to start over" and "They chose to begin anew" are scattered across the story. At the same time, the author herself is embarking on her own fresh start, as this appears a different type of work – observational, genuinely novelistic. However it turns out to be laden with the recurring issues and approaches as earlier books.

From Unplanned Author to Iconic Work

Kraus started out as an visual artist who became a writer almost accidentally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, which was composed of letters to an unreceptive lover, converting personal female narrative from self-debasement into assassination. She persisted as a writer, but the next trio of engaging and challenging novels missed the power and directness that the epistolary style imparted to the voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her role as a renegade artist who had turned into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was considerable focus on property transactions. It makes sense that she currently desires to experiment with different types of content, directing her gaze to the experiences of others, at a time when she asserts that contemporary political climate renders personal narrative redundant.

Three Generations, Shared Inescapable History

The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, encompassing several time periods – none able to break free from their pasts. We encounter the tale of Emma and Jasper, representations of 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 Catt Greene, grappling with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse her husband Paul. The third thread involves the account of a killing of one lost young man by another in a locality mostly forsaken by liberal ideals only a brief drive from the protagonist's home in rural Minnesota.

For this reader drawn to refined literature of the type Kraus herself often avoids, I was seduced by the literary tone of the first section.

Being a reader drawn to honed writing of the kind that the author usually avoids, I was seduced by the storytelling approach of the initial part. There is a new quality of attentiveness that allows space for trivial aspects, like the pail that the youthful Catt frees from the ice at the beginning of the narrative, aided by her cherished parent. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she declares; "a lovely toy", he responds, "the nuanced interpretations of terms circulating in their speech like sweet treats". She tells Emma's story with interest and closeness. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not precisely her dream."

Disappointment and Disjunction

I was destined to be disappointed when I expected this different style could persist to the end. The author states here that she dislikes the pleasure audiences such as myself have gotten from I Love Dick; she's committed to disruption, to the untidy aesthetics she shares with her inspiration Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her past books comes back in the central part. Catt is working on refurbishing 36 run-down apartments in the city's most challenging districts while moving between Minnesota and LA, unsuccessful in assisting Paul control his drinking. She feels helpless as Paul moves between poorly supported positions as an recovery specialist in a world driven by the anger and fear that underpins an electoral success. There are several pages about Catt being cancelled on a platform, her occupation changed from "author" to "property owner" on Wikipedia. She still gives the impression to care a little too much about this. On one occasion she remarks that she's looking into the killing so that before departing the state, "she may grasp something about an the nation that her Twitter detractors would be unable to grasp, would overlook entirely".

The Homicide Account

Then we reach to the homicide in question – and the referenced day spent by the victim with the perpetrator and his companions. Kraus utilizes compelling foundational content, and knows hour by hour what happened when the victim Brandon came to see Brittney after meeting her on an app where she marketed explicit images. He sought a sexual encounter but seems affably to have spent the day with her companions, wandering about fixing his automobile and covering the cost of food and substances, before being shot by Brittney's partner Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has repeatedly received inpatient care for violent rage.

Preoccupation and Open Ends

The protagonist becomes fixated by the story, and I was fascinated by the way that her twin drives towards ethical reporting and reckless transgression clash in this segment. Yet I wished her to delve deeper into her individual preoccupations here. The standout figure is Brittney, who becomes vivid partly through Catt seeing herself in her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman spiraling out of control in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus tells us that Catt speaks to Brittney in detention, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The complete segment feels oddly unfinished, to the extent that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par