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This latest work centers on protagonists chasing after new beginnings, struggling to escape drugs or harmful partnerships, only to see hope turn into conflict. The author often employs the phrase "fresh start", rendering it intentionally weary through recurring use. Examples include "He could make a fresh start" and "They opted for a clean break" appear throughout the narrative. And yet, Kraus herself appears to be undertaking her own fresh start, since this seems a different type of work – observational, truly literary. However it proves to be laden with the recurring issues and aesthetics as her previous works.

From Unplanned Author to Renowned Book

Kraus was originally an visual artist who transitioned to writing almost accidentally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, made up of letters to an unreceptive lover, elevating confessional female writing from abjection into defiance. She continued writing, but the next trio of engaging and challenging novels lacked the shock and immediacy that the epistolary style imparted to the tone of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her position as a maverick maker who had become a major property owner, so there was significant attention on property transactions. It follows that she now wants to explore different types of content, looking outwards to external narratives, at a period in which she asserts that contemporary political climate makes confessional writing unnecessary.

Several Eras, Shared Inescapable History

The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, spanning multiple eras – each trapped by their pasts. We encounter the tale of a couple named Emma and Jasper, based on her own mother and father, transitioning from the New York borough to a pastoral setting. Then there is the account of Kraus, in the guise of Catt Greene, grappling with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her addict husband a man named Paul. The third thread involves the account of a killing of one troubled youth by another in a town long abandoned by progressive politics only a short distance from Catt's cottage in a remote part of Minnesota.

From my perspective as a reader fond of refined literature of the type the author herself often avoids, I was enchanted by the novelistic voice of the first section.

As a reader who appreciates precise prose of the variety that Kraus often disregards, I was seduced by the storytelling approach of the initial part. There is a fresh level of observation that accommodates trivial aspects, like the pail that the protagonist as a child pries out of frozen water at the start of the story, assisted by her beloved father. "Look, an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a great plaything", he responds, "the elliptical meanings of words rolling around in their mouths like hard candy". The author narrates Emma's story with interest and closeness. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not entirely her own."

Frustration and Disruption

I was bound to become frustrated when I wished this fresh tone could continue through the novel. Kraus says here that she resents the enjoyment audiences such as myself have taken from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disruption, to the messy artistic approach she echoes from her inspiration writer Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her past books returns in the central part. Catt is attempting to do up multiple decrepit residences in the city's most challenging districts while moving between two different states, unable to aid Paul manage his alcohol use. She experiences powerlessness as Paul cycles through poorly supported positions as an recovery specialist in a society driven by the anger and fear that powers a political win. There are several pages about Catt being cancelled on social media, her professional designation altered from "writer" to "property owner" on a reference site. The author still appears to be overly concerned about this. At one point she remarks that she's looking into the killing so that before exiting the region, "she might be able to learn something about an the nation that her Twitter detractors would not understand, would not even perceive".

The Homicide Account

So then we come to the murder itself – and the referenced day experienced by the victim with the perpetrator and his associates. The author possesses excellent raw material, and knows hour by hour what transpired when the victim Brandon came to visit Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she marketed explicit images. He anticipated intimacy but appears congenially to have passed the day in the company of her associates, loitering getting his car mended and covering the cost of food and substances, before being killed by gunfire by her romantic interest Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has repeatedly received inpatient care for violent rage.

Obsession and Unfinished Business

Catt develops an obsession by the narrative, and I was intrigued by the way that her twin drives towards responsible documentation and audacious rule-breaking wrestle in this part. Yet I wished her to explore more thoroughly her individual preoccupations here. The most interesting character is Brittney herself, who gains dimension partly through the protagonist's connection to 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 omits the dramatization of these talks. The complete segment feels strangely incomplete, to the extent that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par