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This latest work centers on characters seeking new beginnings, struggling to escape drugs or toxic relationships, only to see hope turn into violence. Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "fresh start", rendering it willfully cynical through constant reiteration. Examples include "He could make a fresh start" and "They chose to begin anew" appear throughout the story. And yet, the author herself is embarking on her personal new beginning, as this presents as a new kind of book – observational, authentically narrative. However it proves to be laden with the recurring issues and aesthetics as her previous works.

From Unplanned Author to Iconic Work

Kraus was originally an creative who entered the literary world almost accidentally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, made up of missives to a distant beloved, elevating confessional female writing from abjection into assassination. She kept producing books, but the three subsequent compelling and abrasive novels lacked the power and directness that the epistolary style infused into the voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her position as a nonconformist creator who had evolved into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was considerable focus on real estate deals. It makes sense that she currently desires to explore different types of content, looking outwards to external narratives, at a moment when she states that Trumpian politics makes confessional writing obsolete.

Multiple Generations, Collective Unavoidable Background

The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, covering three generations – none able to break free from their backgrounds. We encounter the tale of characters Emma and Jasper, based on Kraus's parents, moving from the New York borough to rural Connecticut. There is the narrative of the author, in the persona of Catt Greene, grappling with the belated success of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction her husband Paul. Finally the narrative of a homicide of one troubled youth by another in a locality long abandoned by forward-thinking policies only 80 miles from Catt's rural residence in a remote part of Minnesota.

From my perspective as a reader drawn to honed writing of the kind Kraus typically rejects, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the initial segment.

As someone who reads drawn to crafted language of the variety that the author usually avoids, I was captivated by the storytelling approach of the initial part. It possesses a fresh level of observation that allows space for small details, like the container that the youthful Catt pries out of frozen water at the opening of the book, assisted by her beloved father. "Look, an ice toy!" she declares; "a great plaything", he answers, "the elliptical meanings of words rolling around in their mouths like hard candy". She tells Emma's narrative with interest and closeness. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not precisely her dream."

Disappointment and Disjunction

I was fated to feel let down when I hoped this fresh tone could persist to the end. Kraus notes here that she is annoyed by the pleasure audiences such as myself have gotten from I Love Dick; she's committed to disruption, to the unpolished style she shares with her idol writer Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her previous novels returns in the central part. Catt is working on refurbishing three dozen dilapidated units in the city's most challenging districts while moving between Minnesota and LA, failing to help Paul manage his alcohol use. She is overwhelmed as Paul cycles through underfunded jobs as an addiction therapist in a society propelled by the hostility and dread that powers Trump's victory. There are several pages about Catt's social media ostracism on social media, her occupation changed from "novelist" to "property owner" 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 nation that her social media opponents would not understand, would not even perceive".

The Murder Narrative

Then we reach to the murder itself – and the referenced day passed by the victim with the killer and his associates. Kraus utilizes compelling foundational content, and details moment by moment what happened when Brandon came to visit Brittney after connecting via an application where she offered adult photos. He sought a sexual encounter but appears congenially to have passed the day with her companions, loitering getting his car mended and covering the cost of food and substances, before being shot by her romantic interest Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has frequently been hospitalised for aggressive outbursts.

Obsession and Unfinished Business

Catt develops an obsession by the story, and I was intrigued by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards ethical reporting and reckless transgression tussle in this section. However, I would have preferred her to go further into her individual preoccupations here. The standout figure is the character Brittney, who comes alive partly through Catt's identification with her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual going off the rails in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus tells us that Catt speaks to Brittney in prison, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The complete segment feels curiously unresolved, to the extent that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par