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The new book is populated with individuals seeking fresh starts, struggling to escape drugs or harmful partnerships, only to witness hope devolve into violence. Kraus often employs the phrase "new beginning", rendering it willfully cynical through recurring use. Phrases such as "He aimed to start over" and "They opted for a clean break" recur in the narrative. Meanwhile, the author herself is embarking on her individual reinvention, as this appears a new kind of book – fact-based, truly literary. However it turns out to be laden with the recurring issues and aesthetics as earlier books.

From Chance Novelist to Cult Classic

Kraus started out as an artist who transitioned to writing unintentionally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, which was composed of missives to a distant beloved, elevating intimate women's literature from self-debasement into assassination. She persisted as a writer, but the three subsequent fascinating and rebarbative novels lacked the power and directness that the correspondence format brought to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her position as a maverick maker who had turned into a major property owner, so there was much discussion on property transactions. It is logical that she now wants to explore fresh narrative sources, turning outward to the experiences of others, at a moment when she asserts that contemporary political climate turns intimate literature unnecessary.

Multiple Generations, Collective Unavoidable Background

The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, spanning three generations – all unable to escape their pasts. There is the story of Emma and Jasper, representations of Kraus's parents, transitioning from the New York borough to a pastoral setting. Additionally the narrative of the author, in the character of protagonist Catt Greene, reckoning with the belated success of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her substance-dependent spouse a man named Paul. And there is the story of the murder of one troubled youth by another in a locality mostly forsaken by progressive politics only a short distance from Catt's cottage in a remote part of Minnesota.

For this reader fond of honed writing of the type Kraus often avoids, I was seduced by the literary tone of the first section.

As a reader drawn to precise prose of the variety that Kraus usually avoids, I was seduced by the storytelling approach of the opening segment. It possesses a novel degree of detail that accommodates minutiae, like the bucket that the protagonist as a child pries out of frozen water at the opening of the book, aided by her cherished parent. "Look, an ice toy!" she declares; "a lovely toy", he answers, "the nuanced interpretations of terms rolling around in their mouths like piece candy". The author narrates Emma's narrative with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not precisely her dream."

Disappointment and Disjunction

I was fated to feel let down when I wished this different style could persist to the end. Kraus says here that she is annoyed by the pleasure those who appreciate polished prose have gotten from I Love Dick; she's committed to disjunction, to the untidy aesthetics she shares with her hero writer Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her past books returns in the central part. Catt is attempting to do up three dozen dilapidated units in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while moving between two different states, unable to aid Paul manage his alcohol use. She is overwhelmed as Paul moves between poorly supported positions as an recovery specialist in a environment driven by the rage and anxiety that powers Trump's victory. A significant portion discusses about Catt being cancelled on Twitter, her professional designation altered from "author" to "property owner" on the online encyclopedia. The author still appears to care a little too much about this. On one occasion she states that she's looking into the killing so that before exiting the region, "she might be able to learn something about an the nation that her social media opponents would not understand, would not even see".

The Murder Narrative

Thus we arrive to the murder itself – and the eponymous day experienced by the murdered individual with the murderer and his companions. The author possesses excellent raw material, and reconstructs step by step what occurred as Brandon came to see Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she offered adult photos. He anticipated intimacy but appears congenially to have passed the day in the company of her associates, mooching around fixing his automobile and funding treats and narcotics, before being shot by her romantic interest Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has often been institutionalized for fits of anger.

Obsession and Unfinished Business

The protagonist becomes fixated by the story, and I was intrigued by the way that her twin drives towards responsible documentation and daring boundary-pushing tussle in this section. But I'd have liked her to explore more thoroughly her personal fixations here. The most interesting character is Brittney, who gains dimension partly through the protagonist's connection to her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman going off the rails in a troubled, forgotten town. The author informs us that Catt speaks to Brittney in prison, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The whole section feels oddly unfinished, to the point that her narrative ends almost mid-par