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This latest work features characters chasing after clean slates, trying to break free from drugs or harmful partnerships, only to see hope turn into aggression. Kraus frequently uses the phrase "fresh start", transforming it into intentionally weary through recurring use. Sentences like "He could make a fresh start" and "They opted for a clean break" recur in the text. At the same time, Kraus herself is embarking on her individual reinvention, since this appears a novel form of writing – fact-based, genuinely novelistic. But then it turns out to be packed with the familiar conflicts and styles as earlier books.

From Chance Novelist to Cult Classic

Kraus began as an visual artist who transitioned to writing unintentionally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, structured as missives to a distant beloved, converting confessional female writing from abjection into rebellion. She continued writing, but the next trio of fascinating and rebarbative novels missed the power and directness that the correspondence format imparted to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her position as a renegade artist who had turned into a major property owner, so there was significant attention on housing investments. It is logical that she currently desires to try out different types of content, turning outward to other people's stories, at a period in which she states that Trumpian politics turns intimate literature unnecessary.

Multiple Generations, Collective Unavoidable Background

The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, spanning several time periods – none able to break free from their histories. The book includes the tale of a couple named Emma and Jasper, versions of Kraus's parents, transitioning from the Bronx to the Connecticut countryside. Additionally the story of Kraus herself, in the character of Catt Greene, grappling with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her addict husband a man named Paul. And there is the story of the murder of one lost young man by another in a locality long abandoned by progressive politics only 80 miles from the protagonist's home in the Minnesota countryside.

For this reader attracted to polished prose of the kind Kraus herself typically rejects, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the first section.

Being a reader who favors crafted language of the variety that the author usually avoids, I was seduced by the storytelling approach of the first section. It possesses a novel degree of detail that makes room for trivial aspects, like the container that the youthful Catt frees from the ice at the opening of the book, aided by her adored dad. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she declares; "a nice toy", he answers, "the elliptical meanings of words circulating in their speech like sweet treats". The author narrates Emma's narrative with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not hers, exactly."

Disappointment and Disjunction

I was fated to feel let down when I hoped this new voice could persist to the end. The author states here that she resents the satisfaction audiences such as myself have derived from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to fragmentation, to the unpolished style she echoes from her hero author Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her previous novels reasserts itself in the second segment. The protagonist is working on refurbishing multiple decrepit residences in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while traveling between the Midwest and the West Coast, failing to help Paul manage his alcohol use. She feels helpless as Paul transitions between underfunded jobs as an recovery specialist in a society propelled by the hostility and dread that drives an electoral success. Multiple pages are devoted about the protagonist facing cancellation on social media, her occupation changed from "novelist" to "property owner" on Wikipedia. She still gives the impression to care a little too much about this. At one point 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 Killing Story

Thus we arrive to the actual killing – and the titular day experienced by the murdered individual with the perpetrator and his companions. Kraus has excellent raw material, and knows hour by hour what occurred as the victim Brandon came to meet Brittney after meeting her on an app where she marketed explicit images. He anticipated intimacy but appears congenially to have passed the day with her companions, loitering having his vehicle repaired and paying for snacks and drugs, before being killed by gunfire by her romantic interest a man named Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has repeatedly received inpatient care for aggressive outbursts.

Preoccupation and Open Ends

Catt gets obsessed by the account, and I was fascinated by the way that her twin drives towards responsible documentation and reckless transgression wrestle in this part. However, I would have preferred her to go further into her personal fixations here. The standout figure is the character Brittney, who gains dimension partially because of Catt seeing herself in her – another bright, bullied girl spiraling out of control in a troubled, forgotten town. The author informs us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in jail, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. This entire part feels curiously unresolved, to the degree that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par