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This latest work features characters pursuing new beginnings, struggling to escape drugs or harmful partnerships, only to find hope curdling into conflict. The author repeatedly invokes the phrase "fresh start", transforming it into deliberately jaded through recurring use. Examples include "He could make a fresh start" and "They decided to make a fresh start" are scattered across the story. At the same time, she seems to be making her personal new beginning, because this seems a different type of work – documentarian, truly literary. However it reveals itself to be packed with the familiar conflicts and styles as past novels.

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, converting personal female narrative from self-debasement into assassination. She persisted as a writer, but the following three engaging and challenging novels missed the shock and immediacy that the letter form infused into the voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her position as a nonconformist creator who had evolved into a major property owner, so there was significant attention on property transactions. It is logical that she presently aims to explore new kinds of material, looking outwards to the experiences of others, at a moment when she asserts that contemporary political climate makes confessional writing redundant.

Three Generations, Shared Inescapable History

The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, covering three generations – none able to break free from their histories. We encounter the narrative about Emma and Jasper, based on the author's parents, relocating from the Bronx to rural Connecticut. Additionally the narrative of the author, in the guise of Catt Greene, grappling with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her substance-dependent spouse her husband Paul. Finally the account of a killing of one directionless individual by another in a locality mostly forsaken by liberal ideals only a short distance from Catt's cottage in the Minnesota countryside.

For this reader attracted to polished prose of the sort Kraus tends to eschew, I was enchanted by the novelistic voice of the initial segment.

As someone who reads who favors precise prose of the style that Kraus herself often disregards, I was seduced by the literary tone of the initial part. There is a novel degree of detail that allows space for minutiae, like the container that the protagonist as a child frees from the ice at the beginning of the narrative, assisted by her beloved father. "Look, an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a nice toy", he replies, "the ambiguous meanings of language rolling around in their mouths like hard candy". She tells Emma's narrative with interest and closeness. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not precisely her dream."

Disappointment and Disjunction

I was destined to be disappointed when I expected this different style could persist to the end. Kraus says here that she dislikes the pleasure those who appreciate polished prose have gotten from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disjunction, to the messy artistic approach she has in common with her hero Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her previous novels comes back in the central part. Catt is trying to renovate multiple decrepit residences in the city's most challenging districts while traveling between the Midwest and the West Coast, unsuccessful in assisting Paul curb his addiction. She feels helpless as Paul transitions between low-resource employment as an substance abuse counselor in a environment fueled by the anger and fear that underpins an electoral success. There are several pages about Catt being cancelled on a platform, her listed profession modified from "author" to "real estate holder" on a reference site. Kraus still seems to be overly concerned about this. On one occasion she remarks that she's investigating the murder so that before leaving Minnesota, "she might be able to learn something about an the United States that her Twitter detractors would not understand, would overlook entirely".

The Homicide Account

Thus we arrive to the homicide in question – and the eponymous day spent by the victim with the killer and his companions. Kraus utilizes excellent raw material, and knows hour by hour what transpired when a man named Brandon came to see Brittney after meeting her on an app where she offered adult photos. He anticipated intimacy but seems amiably to have occupied the day with her companions, mooching around getting his car mended and covering the cost of food and substances, before being shot by Brittney's partner Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has often been institutionalized for fits of anger.

Preoccupation and Open Ends

The protagonist becomes fixated by the story, and I was intrigued by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards accurate chronicling and reckless transgression wrestle in this part. However, I would have preferred her to delve deeper into her personal fixations here. The standout figure is the character Brittney, who comes alive partly through Catt's identification with her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual derailing in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus notes that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in prison, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The complete segment feels oddly unfinished, to the point that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par