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The new book centers on individuals chasing after fresh starts, trying to break free from substance abuse or harmful partnerships, only to witness hope devolve into conflict. The author often employs the phrase "fresh start", rendering it willfully cynical through constant reiteration. Sentences like "He aimed to start over" and "They opted for a clean break" appear throughout the story. At the same time, she appears to be undertaking her own fresh start, because this seems a different type of work – fact-based, truly literary. Yet it proves to be filled with the familiar conflicts and approaches as earlier books.

From Unplanned Author to Cult Classic

The writer was originally an visual artist who entered the literary world almost accidentally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, which was composed of letters to an unreceptive lover, converting intimate women's literature from humiliation into rebellion. She kept producing books, but the following three fascinating and rebarbative novels did not possess the impact and rawness that the letter form brought to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her identity as a nonconformist creator who had become a major property owner, so there was significant attention on housing investments. It follows that she presently aims to try out new kinds of material, directing her gaze to other people's stories, at a time when she asserts that contemporary political climate renders personal narrative unnecessary.

Several Eras, One Unescapable Past

The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, encompassing multiple eras – all unable to escape their backgrounds. We encounter the story of a couple named Emma and Jasper, versions of the author's parents, relocating from the urban environment to rural Connecticut. Then there is the story of Kraus herself, in the persona of a figure named Catt Greene, confronting the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her partner struggling with addiction Paul. Finally the narrative of a homicide of one troubled youth by another in a community largely deserted by progressive politics only 80 miles from the protagonist's home in a remote part of Minnesota.

As a reader drawn to honed writing of the sort Kraus herself typically rejects, I was enchanted by the literary tone of the opening part.

As someone who reads who appreciates precise prose of the kind that Kraus usually avoids, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the opening segment. There is a novel degree of detail that accommodates trivial aspects, like the bucket that the protagonist as a child dislodges from ice at the opening of the book, aided by her cherished parent. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she declares; "a great plaything", he replies, "the nuanced interpretations of terms circulating in their speech like piece candy". She tells the tale of Emma with curiosity and intimacy. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not hers, exactly."

Letdown and Fragmentation

I was destined to be disappointed when I hoped this new voice could last out the book. Kraus notes here that she is annoyed by the pleasure audiences such as myself have gotten from I Love Dick; she's devoted to fragmentation, to the untidy aesthetics she has in common with her hero writer Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her past books reasserts itself in the middle section. Catt Greene is trying to renovate multiple decrepit residences in the city's most challenging districts while traveling between Minnesota and LA, failing to help Paul curb his addiction. She is overwhelmed as Paul moves between low-resource employment as an substance abuse counselor in a world fueled by the rage and anxiety that underpins Trump's victory. There are several pages about the protagonist facing cancellation on a platform, her occupation changed from "author" to "real estate holder" on a reference site. Kraus still seems to care a little too much about this. In a moment she says that she's researching the homicide so that before exiting the region, "she may grasp something about an the United States that her online critics would be unable to grasp, would not even see".

The Murder Narrative

So then we come to the actual killing – and the eponymous day spent by the murdered individual with the perpetrator and his companions. Kraus has excellent raw material, and details moment by moment what occurred as a man named Brandon came to meet Brittney after connecting via an application where she sold sex pictures. He was hoping for sex but appears congenially to have passed the day with her companions, mooching around having his vehicle repaired and paying for snacks and drugs, before being murdered by her romantic interest a man named Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has repeatedly received inpatient care for violent rage.

Preoccupation and Open Ends

The protagonist becomes fixated by the story, and I was fascinated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards ethical reporting and reckless transgression tussle in this section. But I'd have liked her to explore more thoroughly her personal fixations here. The compelling persona is Brittney, who gains dimension in part due to Catt seeing herself in her – another bright, bullied girl derailing in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus tells us that Catt speaks to Brittney in prison, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The complete segment feels oddly unfinished, to the degree that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par