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The new book centers on protagonists pursuing fresh starts, attempting to leave behind drugs or abusive marriages, only to find hope curdling into conflict. The author frequently uses the phrase "fresh start", transforming it into deliberately jaded through recurring use. Sentences like "He could make a fresh start" and "They chose to begin anew" appear throughout the text. At the same time, the author herself appears to be undertaking her own fresh start, because this seems a different type of work – observational, authentically narrative. But then it turns out to be filled with the same dilemmas and aesthetics as past novels.

From Chance Novelist to Renowned Book

The writer was originally an visual artist who became a writer somewhat by chance with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, made up of missives to a distant beloved, transforming personal female narrative from humiliation into assassination. She persisted as a writer, but the three subsequent fascinating and rebarbative novels missed the shock and immediacy that the correspondence format infused into the narrative voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her position as a renegade artist who had evolved into a major property owner, so there was much discussion on housing investments. It follows that she currently desires to explore new kinds of material, turning outward to the experiences of others, at a period in which she claims that contemporary political climate makes confessional writing unnecessary.

Several Eras, Collective Unavoidable Background

The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, spanning three generations – all unable to escape their histories. There is the story of a couple named Emma and Jasper, representations of the author's parents, moving from the Bronx to rural Connecticut. Then there is the narrative of the author, in the guise of Catt Greene, confronting the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction a man named Paul. The third thread involves the account of a killing of one directionless individual by another in a locality long abandoned by progressive politics only 80 miles from Catt's cottage in a remote part of Minnesota.

From my perspective as a reader fond of refined literature of the sort Kraus often avoids, I was seduced by the narrative style of the opening part.

As someone who reads who appreciates crafted language of the style that Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the initial part. There is a fresh level of observation that makes room for trivial aspects, like the bucket that the protagonist as a child pries out of frozen water at the opening of the book, assisted by her adored dad. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she exclaims; "a nice toy", he replies, "the elliptical meanings of words circulating in their speech like piece candy". She tells Emma's story with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not precisely her dream."

Disappointment and Disjunction

I was fated to feel let down when I hoped this different style could continue through the novel. Kraus notes here that she is annoyed by the satisfaction readers like me have taken from I Love Dick; she's committed to fragmentation, to the unpolished style she echoes from her hero author Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her previous novels reasserts itself in the second segment. Catt is attempting to do up 36 run-down apartments in the city's most challenging districts while traveling between two different states, failing to help her husband manage his alcohol use. She is overwhelmed as her spouse moves between poorly supported positions as an recovery specialist in a world driven by the hostility and dread that drives an electoral success. A significant portion discusses about Catt being cancelled on social media, her professional designation altered from "writer" to "real estate holder" on Wikipedia. The author still appears to be overly concerned about this. In a moment she states that she's researching the homicide so that before departing the state, "she might be able to learn something about an the United States that her Twitter detractors would be unable to grasp, would overlook entirely".

The Homicide Account

Thus we arrive to the actual killing – and the referenced day passed by the victim with the murderer and his friends. Kraus utilizes great source material, and reconstructs step by step what occurred as Brandon came to meet Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she marketed explicit images. He anticipated intimacy but seems affably to have spent the day with her companions, mooching around having his vehicle repaired and funding treats and narcotics, before being shot by her romantic interest Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has often been institutionalized for aggressive outbursts.

Preoccupation and Open Ends

Catt develops an obsession by the story, and I found myself captivated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards accurate chronicling and daring boundary-pushing tussle in this section. But I'd have liked her to explore more thoroughly her personal fixations here. The compelling persona is the character Brittney, who gains dimension in part due to the protagonist's connection to her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman spiraling out of control in a difficult, overlooked locality. The author informs us that Catt speaks to Brittney in prison, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The complete segment feels curiously unresolved, to the extent that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par