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The new book features characters pursuing new beginnings, trying to break free from substance abuse or toxic relationships, only to witness hope devolve into violence. The author frequently uses the phrase "new beginning", transforming it into intentionally weary through constant reiteration. Sentences like "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They chose to begin anew" appear throughout the story. Meanwhile, she is embarking on her personal new beginning, as this presents as a novel form of writing – documentarian, truly literary. However it reveals itself to be packed with the same dilemmas and approaches as past novels.

From Unplanned Author to Iconic Work

The writer began as an visual artist who entered the literary world somewhat by chance with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, structured as missives to a distant beloved, converting personal female narrative from humiliation into assassination. She kept producing books, but the three subsequent fascinating and rebarbative novels lacked the shock and immediacy that the epistolary style imparted to the tone of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her role as a maverick maker who had evolved into a major property owner, so there was significant attention on property transactions. It follows that she presently aims to explore fresh narrative sources, looking outwards to external narratives, at a period in which she states that Trumpian politics makes confessional writing unnecessary.

Three Generations, Shared Inescapable History

The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, spanning three generations – none able to break free from their pasts. We encounter the story of characters Emma and Jasper, representations of Kraus's parents, relocating from the New York borough to the Connecticut countryside. Additionally the story of Kraus herself, in the guise of a figure named Catt Greene, reckoning with the belated success of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her addict husband Paul. Finally the account of a killing of one directionless individual by another in a locality mostly forsaken by progressive politics only a brief drive from the protagonist's home in rural Minnesota.

For this reader fond of honed writing of the kind Kraus typically rejects, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the opening part.

Being a reader drawn to precise prose of the style that Kraus herself often disregards, I was seduced by the storytelling approach of the first section. It exhibits a new quality of attentiveness that allows space for small details, like the bucket that the protagonist as a child frees from the ice at the start of the story, aided by her adored dad. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she says; "a great plaything", he replies, "the elliptical meanings of words circulating in their speech like sweet treats". She tells the tale of Emma with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not entirely her own."

Frustration and Disruption

I was destined to be disappointed when I hoped this new voice could last out the book. Kraus says here that she is annoyed by the pleasure those who appreciate polished prose have taken from I Love Dick; she's committed to disjunction, to the unpolished style she has in common with her idol author Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her previous novels returns in the middle section. The protagonist is attempting to do up 36 run-down apartments in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while shuttling between the Midwest and the West Coast, unable to aid Paul control his drinking. She feels helpless as Paul transitions between underfunded jobs as an substance abuse counselor in a environment propelled by the hostility and dread that powers an electoral success. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt's social media ostracism on Twitter, her occupation changed from "writer" to "real estate holder" on Wikipedia. The author still appears to invest excessive emotion about this. At one point she says that she's investigating the murder so that before leaving Minnesota, "she might be able to learn something about an America that her social media opponents would fail to comprehend, would not even perceive".

The Homicide Account

Then we reach to the actual killing – and the eponymous day experienced by the murdered individual with the killer and his associates. Kraus utilizes excellent raw material, and knows hour by hour what transpired when the victim Brandon came to see Brittney after connecting via an application where she sold sex pictures. He anticipated intimacy but seems amiably to have occupied the day in the company of her associates, loitering getting his car mended and funding treats and narcotics, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's partner 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 clash in this segment. However, I would have preferred her to explore more thoroughly her own obsessions here. The standout figure is Brittney herself, who gains dimension in part due to Catt's identification with her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman going off the rails in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus notes that Catt converses with Brittney in detention, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The whole section feels oddly unfinished, to the extent that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par