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This latest work is populated with characters chasing after fresh starts, trying to break free from addictions or harmful partnerships, only to find hope curdling into violence. The author frequently uses the phrase "new beginning", transforming it into willfully cynical through recurring use. Phrases such as "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They opted for a clean break" are scattered across the narrative. At the same time, the author herself appears to be undertaking her individual reinvention, since this presents as a different type of work – fact-based, authentically narrative. Yet it reveals itself to be filled with the familiar conflicts and styles as her previous works.

From Chance Novelist to Cult Classic

Kraus began as an visual artist who transitioned to writing almost accidentally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, structured as letters to an unreceptive lover, elevating personal female narrative from self-debasement into assassination. She continued writing, but the three subsequent fascinating and rebarbative novels lacked the shock and immediacy that the epistolary style brought to the tone of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her position as a nonconformist creator who had turned into a extensive real estate holder, so there was significant attention on real estate deals. It makes sense that she now wants to experiment with new kinds of material, turning outward to other people's stories, at a moment when she states that contemporary political climate turns intimate literature unnecessary.

Several Eras, Collective Unavoidable Background

The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, spanning several time periods – each trapped by their histories. We encounter the narrative about characters Emma and Jasper, representations of the author's parents, relocating from the urban environment to the Connecticut countryside. There is the account of Kraus, in the guise of protagonist Catt Greene, grappling with the belated success of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her addict husband a man named Paul. Finally the account of a killing of one lost young man by another in a locality mostly forsaken by progressive politics only a short distance from Catt's cottage in rural Minnesota.

From my perspective as a reader attracted to honed writing of the sort the author herself tends to eschew, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the opening part.

As a reader drawn to precise prose of the style that Kraus tends to eschew, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the initial part. There is a fresh level of observation that accommodates small details, like the bucket that the youthful Catt pries out of frozen water at the start of the story, assisted by her beloved father. "Look, an ice toy!" she declares; "a lovely toy", he responds, "the nuanced interpretations of terms rolling around in their mouths like sweet treats". She tells Emma's narrative with interest and closeness. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not hers, exactly."

Letdown and Fragmentation

I was bound to become frustrated when I expected this new voice could continue through the novel. The author states here that she dislikes the satisfaction audiences such as myself have gotten from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to fragmentation, to the untidy aesthetics she shares with her hero Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her earlier works returns in the middle section. Catt Greene is working on refurbishing 36 run-down apartments in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while traveling between the Midwest and the West Coast, unable to aid Paul curb his addiction. She experiences powerlessness as Paul cycles through low-resource employment as an substance abuse counselor in a society propelled by the anger and fear that powers Trump's victory. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt being cancelled on Twitter, her listed profession modified from "author" to "property owner" on the online encyclopedia. Kraus still seems to invest excessive emotion about this. In a moment she says that she's looking into the killing so that before departing the state, "she may grasp something about an the nation that her online critics would be unable to grasp, would not even perceive".

The Homicide Account

Thus we arrive to the actual killing – and the eponymous day experienced by the deceased with the murderer and his companions. Kraus has great source material, and reconstructs step by step what happened 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, mooching around fixing his automobile and funding treats and narcotics, before being murdered by her romantic interest Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has often been institutionalized for violent rage.

Fascination and Incompletion

Catt develops an obsession by the narrative, and I was fascinated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards responsible documentation and daring boundary-pushing tussle in this section. But I'd have liked her to go further into her own obsessions here. The most interesting character is the character Brittney, who gains dimension partly through Catt seeing herself in her – another bright, bullied girl derailing in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus notes that Catt speaks to Brittney in prison, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. This entire part feels curiously unresolved, to the point that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par