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This latest work features protagonists pursuing fresh starts, trying to break free from addictions or abusive marriages, only to find hope curdling into conflict. The author frequently uses the phrase "fresh start", transforming it into intentionally weary through its repetitions. Examples include "He could make a fresh start" and "They decided to make a fresh start" appear throughout the text. And yet, she is embarking on her own fresh start, because this seems a different type of work – fact-based, genuinely novelistic. However it reveals itself to be filled with the recurring issues and styles as past novels.

From Chance Novelist to Iconic Work

Kraus started out as an creative who became a writer unintentionally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, which was composed of missives to a distant beloved, transforming intimate women's literature from humiliation into assassination. She persisted as a writer, but the next trio of engaging and challenging novels did not possess the power and directness that the correspondence format infused into the narrative voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her position as a nonconformist creator who had evolved into a extensive real estate holder, so there was significant attention on real estate deals. It is logical that she currently desires to experiment with different types of content, looking outwards to other people's stories, at a period in which she states that contemporary political climate turns intimate literature obsolete.

Multiple Generations, Shared Inescapable History

The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, covering multiple eras – all unable to escape their histories. The book includes the tale of characters Emma and Jasper, based on the author's parents, transitioning from the Bronx to rural Connecticut. There is the account of Kraus, in the persona of Catt Greene, reckoning with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction Paul. And there is the story of the murder of one directionless individual by another in a community mostly forsaken by liberal ideals only a short distance from Catt's rural residence in rural Minnesota.

As a reader drawn to polished prose of the sort the author herself often avoids, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the first section.

As a reader who appreciates precise prose of the kind that Kraus herself usually avoids, I was won over by the literary tone of the first section. It exhibits a fresh level of observation that accommodates minutiae, like the container that the youthful Catt frees from the ice at the opening of the book, aided by her adored dad. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she declares; "a lovely toy", he answers, "the elliptical meanings of words tumbling in their mouths like hard candy". The author narrates the tale of Emma with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not hers, exactly."

Letdown and Fragmentation

I was bound to become frustrated when I hoped this fresh tone could persist to the end. The author states here that she dislikes the enjoyment readers like me have taken from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to fragmentation, to the unpolished style she shares with her hero writer Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her previous novels returns in the second segment. Catt is trying to renovate three dozen dilapidated units in the city's most challenging districts while traveling between two different states, failing to help Paul manage his alcohol use. She is overwhelmed as her spouse transitions between poorly supported positions as an substance abuse counselor in a world driven by the anger and fear that underpins Trump's victory. A significant portion discusses about Catt's social media ostracism on a platform, her occupation changed from "author" to "real estate holder" on Wikipedia. She still gives the impression to invest excessive emotion about this. On one occasion she states that she's investigating the murder so that before leaving Minnesota, "she could potentially understand something about an America that her online critics would not understand, would not even see".

The Homicide Account

So then we come to the homicide in question – and the titular day passed by the murdered individual with the killer and his associates. Kraus has compelling foundational content, and reconstructs step by step what occurred as a man named Brandon came to see Brittney after meeting her on an app where she sold sex pictures. He was hoping for sex but appears congenially to have passed the day with her companions, loitering fixing his automobile and paying for snacks and drugs, before being shot by Brittney's partner Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has often been institutionalized for fits of anger.

Obsession and Unfinished Business

The protagonist becomes fixated by the account, and I was fascinated by the way that her twin drives towards responsible documentation and reckless transgression tussle in this section. However, I would have preferred her to delve deeper into her individual preoccupations here. The standout figure is Brittney, who becomes vivid in part due to the protagonist's connection to her – another bright, bullied girl spiraling out of control in a struggling, neglected community. The author informs us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in detention, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The whole section feels curiously unresolved, to the extent that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par