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The new book features characters seeking clean slates, attempting to leave behind substance abuse or harmful partnerships, only to find hope curdling into conflict. Kraus frequently uses the phrase "fresh start", transforming it into deliberately jaded through recurring use. Examples include "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They decided to make a fresh start" appear throughout the text. And yet, she appears to be undertaking her individual reinvention, as this seems a different type of work – documentarian, authentically narrative. But then it turns out to be packed with the recurring issues and aesthetics as past novels.

From Accidental Writer to Cult Classic

The writer was originally an artist who entered the literary world unintentionally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, which was composed of letters to an unreceptive lover, elevating confessional female writing from self-debasement into assassination. She persisted as a writer, but the three subsequent fascinating and rebarbative novels lacked the shock and immediacy that the epistolary style infused into the voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her role as a renegade artist who had become a major property owner, so there was considerable focus on real estate deals. It follows that she currently desires to explore different types of content, turning outward to external narratives, at a time when she claims that Trumpian politics turns intimate literature unnecessary.

Three Generations, Shared Inescapable History

The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, covering three generations – none able to break free from their pasts. There is the narrative about characters Emma and Jasper, representations of the author's parents, moving from the New York borough to a pastoral setting. Additionally the narrative of the author, in the guise of a figure named Catt Greene, grappling with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her addict husband Paul. The third thread involves the story of the murder of one lost young man by another in a town largely deserted by forward-thinking policies only a brief drive from Catt's cottage in rural Minnesota.

For this reader drawn to honed writing of the type Kraus often avoids, I was enchanted by the novelistic voice of the first section.

As a reader who favors crafted language of the style that Kraus usually avoids, I was won over by the storytelling approach of the first section. There is a fresh level of observation that accommodates minutiae, like the pail that the young Catt frees from the ice at the opening of the book, aided by her beloved father. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she says; "a lovely toy", he answers, "the elliptical meanings of words circulating in their speech like hard candy". Kraus writes the tale of Emma with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not entirely her own."

Disappointment and Disjunction

I was bound to become frustrated when I wished this new voice could continue through the novel. Kraus says here that she is annoyed by the enjoyment those who appreciate polished prose have taken from I Love Dick; she's committed to fragmentation, to the untidy aesthetics she echoes from her inspiration Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her past books returns in the middle section. The protagonist is working on refurbishing multiple decrepit residences in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while shuttling between the Midwest and the West Coast, failing to help Paul control his drinking. She experiences powerlessness as Paul cycles through low-resource employment as an substance abuse counselor in a environment fueled by the hostility and dread that drives a political win. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt's social media ostracism on social media, her occupation changed from "author" to "landlord" on the online encyclopedia. She still gives the impression to invest excessive emotion about this. On one occasion she remarks that she's investigating the murder so that before exiting the region, "she may grasp something about an America that her online critics would not understand, would overlook entirely".

The Murder Narrative

Thus we arrive to the actual killing – and the referenced day passed by the victim with the killer and his friends. The author possesses compelling foundational content, and details moment by moment what transpired when Brandon came to see Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she sold sex pictures. He sought a sexual encounter but seems amiably to have occupied the day with her companions, wandering about getting his car mended and funding treats and narcotics, before being shot by Brittney's partner a man named Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has repeatedly received inpatient care for aggressive outbursts.

Fascination and Incompletion

The protagonist becomes fixated by the account, and I was intrigued by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards accurate chronicling and audacious rule-breaking wrestle in this part. However, I would have preferred her to go further into her personal fixations here. The compelling persona is Brittney herself, who becomes vivid in part due to Catt seeing herself in her – another bright, bullied girl going off the rails in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus tells us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in prison, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The complete segment feels strangely incomplete, to the point that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par