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The new book is populated with characters pursuing new beginnings, attempting to leave behind drugs or abusive marriages, only to see hope turn into conflict. The author repeatedly invokes the phrase "new beginning", making it deliberately jaded through constant reiteration. Examples include "He aimed to start over" and "They opted for a clean break" recur in the text. And yet, the author herself is embarking on her personal new beginning, as this presents as a different type of work – observational, truly literary. But then it proves to be laden with the recurring issues and styles as her previous works.

From Chance Novelist to Renowned Book

The writer was originally an visual artist who became a writer unintentionally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, made up of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, transforming personal female narrative from self-debasement into assassination. She kept producing books, but the following three compelling and abrasive novels lacked the impact and rawness that the letter form imparted to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her role as a nonconformist creator who had evolved into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was considerable focus on real estate deals. It follows that she currently desires to experiment with fresh narrative sources, directing her gaze to other people's stories, at a period in which she claims that contemporary political climate makes confessional writing redundant.

Three Generations, One Unescapable Past

The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, spanning multiple eras – each trapped by their histories. We encounter the story of a couple named Emma and Jasper, versions of Kraus's parents, transitioning from the urban environment to rural Connecticut. There is the account of Kraus, in the persona of Catt Greene, reckoning with the belated success of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction a man named Paul. And there is the account of a killing of one troubled youth by another in a community mostly forsaken by progressive politics only 80 miles from Catt's cottage in a remote part of Minnesota.

From my perspective as a reader attracted to honed writing of the sort the author herself often avoids, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the opening part.

As a reader drawn to precise prose of the style that the author often disregards, I was won over by the literary tone of the first section. There is a new quality of attentiveness that accommodates small details, like the pail that the youthful Catt dislodges from ice at the opening of the book, aided by her cherished parent. "I found an ice toy!" she declares; "a nice toy", he answers, "the elliptical meanings of words tumbling in their mouths like sweet treats". Kraus writes Emma's narrative with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not precisely her dream."

Letdown and Fragmentation

I was fated to feel let down when I expected this new voice could persist to the end. Kraus says here that she dislikes the enjoyment readers like me have gotten from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disjunction, to the unpolished style she echoes from her hero Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her past books reasserts itself in the middle section. Catt Greene is working on refurbishing multiple decrepit residences in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while moving between two different states, failing to help Paul manage his alcohol use. She feels helpless as her spouse transitions between underfunded jobs as an recovery specialist in a world driven by the hostility and dread that powers Trump's victory. There are several pages about Catt being cancelled on a platform, her professional designation altered from "novelist" to "property owner" on Wikipedia. She still gives the impression to invest excessive emotion about this. At one point she remarks that she's investigating the murder so that before leaving Minnesota, "she could potentially understand something about an America that her social media opponents would fail to comprehend, would overlook entirely".

The Murder Narrative

So then we come to the murder itself – and the titular day spent by the deceased with the murderer and his companions. Kraus utilizes great source material, and details moment by moment what happened when a man named Brandon came to meet Brittney after meeting her on an app where she sold sex pictures. He anticipated intimacy but appears congenially to have passed the day in the company of her associates, loitering having his vehicle repaired and funding treats and narcotics, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's partner Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has frequently been hospitalised for violent rage.

Fascination and Incompletion

Catt develops an obsession by the story, and I was intrigued by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards accurate chronicling and reckless transgression tussle in this section. However, I would have preferred her to explore more thoroughly her individual preoccupations here. The most interesting character is Brittney, who becomes vivid in part due to Catt's identification with her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman spiraling out of control in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus notes that Catt converses with Brittney in prison, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. The whole section feels curiously unresolved, to the point that her narrative ends almost mid-par