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The new book is populated with individuals chasing after clean slates, trying to break free from drugs or toxic relationships, only to find hope curdling into violence. Kraus often employs the phrase "new beginning", making it willfully cynical through recurring use. Phrases such as "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They chose to begin anew" recur in the narrative. And yet, Kraus herself seems to be making her personal new beginning, since this appears a new kind of book – fact-based, truly literary. However it turns out to be packed with the same dilemmas and styles as earlier books.

From Chance Novelist to Renowned Book

The writer was originally an artist who transitioned to writing unintentionally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, made up of letters to an unreceptive lover, converting intimate women's literature 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 correspondence format brought to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her position as a renegade artist who had turned into a extensive real estate holder, so there was much discussion on real estate deals. It is logical that she now wants to explore fresh narrative sources, turning outward to the experiences of others, at a period in which she asserts that Trumpian politics renders personal narrative redundant.

Multiple Generations, Collective Unavoidable Background

The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, covering several time periods – all unable to escape their pasts. There is the narrative about Emma and Jasper, based on Kraus's parents, transitioning from the Bronx to the Connecticut countryside. Additionally the account of Kraus, in the guise of a figure named Catt Greene, grappling with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction a man named Paul. Finally the story of the murder of one lost young man by another in a community mostly forsaken by forward-thinking policies only 80 miles from the protagonist's home in the Minnesota countryside.

From my perspective as a reader attracted to polished prose of the kind the author herself typically rejects, I was enchanted by the literary tone of the opening part.

Being a reader who favors honed writing of the style that Kraus usually avoids, I was seduced by the literary tone of the opening segment. It exhibits a new quality of attentiveness that accommodates small details, like the bucket that the young Catt dislodges from ice at the opening of the book, helped by her adored dad. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she says; "a nice toy", he answers, "the elliptical meanings of words rolling around in their mouths like hard candy". The author narrates the tale of Emma with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not hers, exactly."

Letdown and Fragmentation

I was fated to feel let down when I wished this new voice could last out the book. Kraus notes here that she resents the enjoyment audiences such as myself have taken from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to fragmentation, to the messy artistic approach she shares with her hero writer Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her previous novels comes back in the second segment. The protagonist is trying to renovate 36 run-down apartments in the city's most challenging districts while moving between two different states, failing to help Paul curb his addiction. She experiences powerlessness as Paul transitions between low-resource employment as an substance abuse counselor in a world fueled by the anger and fear that underpins Trump's victory. A significant portion discusses about Catt's social media ostracism on Twitter, her occupation changed from "writer" to "real estate holder" on a reference site. The author still appears to care a little too much about this. On one occasion she remarks that she's researching the homicide so that before leaving Minnesota, "she could potentially understand something about an America that her Twitter detractors would not understand, would not even perceive".

The Killing Story

Thus we arrive to the homicide in question – and the referenced day passed by the deceased with the murderer and his friends. Kraus has great source material, and knows hour by hour what occurred as the victim Brandon came to meet Brittney after meeting her on an app where she offered adult photos. He anticipated intimacy but appears congenially to have passed the day with her companions, mooching around getting his car mended and covering the cost of food and substances, before being murdered by her romantic interest a man named Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has often been institutionalized for aggressive outbursts.

Obsession and Unfinished Business

Catt gets obsessed by the account, and I found myself captivated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards accurate chronicling and reckless transgression clash in this segment. However, I would have preferred her to explore more thoroughly her own obsessions here. The most interesting character is Brittney, who becomes vivid partially because of Catt seeing herself in her – another bright, bullied girl derailing in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus tells us that Catt converses with Brittney in detention, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. This entire part feels curiously unresolved, to the degree that her narrative ends almost mid-par