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This latest work is populated with protagonists seeking clean slates, attempting to leave behind substance abuse or harmful partnerships, only to see hope turn into violence. Kraus often employs the phrase "fresh start", transforming it into intentionally weary through recurring use. Sentences like "He aimed to start over" and "They chose to begin anew" are scattered across the story. Meanwhile, the author herself appears to be undertaking her personal new beginning, as this appears a different type of work – documentarian, authentically narrative. However it reveals itself to be laden with the familiar conflicts and approaches as past novels.

From Chance Novelist to Cult Classic

Kraus began as an visual artist who became a writer somewhat by chance with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, structured as letters to an unreceptive lover, elevating intimate women's literature from abjection into defiance. She persisted as a writer, but the following three engaging and challenging novels did not possess the shock and immediacy that the letter form imparted to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her position as a nonconformist creator who had become a extensive real estate holder, so there was much discussion on property transactions. It follows that she now wants to experiment with different types of content, turning outward to external narratives, at a period in which she states that Trumpian politics renders personal narrative redundant.

Several Eras, Collective Unavoidable Background

The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, covering three generations – all unable to escape their histories. There is the story of a couple named Emma and Jasper, based on her own mother and father, transitioning from the Bronx to a pastoral setting. Additionally the narrative of the author, in the guise of a figure named Catt Greene, confronting the late recognition of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction a man named Paul. The third thread involves the story of the murder of one troubled youth by another in a town long abandoned by liberal ideals only a short distance from Catt's rural residence in a remote part of Minnesota.

As a reader attracted to refined literature of the kind Kraus herself typically rejects, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the initial segment.

Being a reader drawn to crafted language of the style that Kraus tends to eschew, I was captivated by the storytelling approach of the opening segment. It possesses a novel degree of detail that allows space for trivial aspects, like the container that the young Catt frees from the ice at the opening of the book, assisted by her beloved father. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she exclaims; "a lovely toy", he replies, "the nuanced interpretations of terms tumbling in their mouths like sweet treats". Kraus writes Emma's story with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not entirely her own."

Disappointment and Disjunction

I was fated to feel let down when I expected this different style could last out the book. Kraus says here that she is annoyed by the enjoyment audiences such as myself have gotten from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to fragmentation, to the untidy aesthetics she shares with her idol writer Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her past books comes back in the central part. The protagonist is attempting to do up three dozen dilapidated units in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while shuttling between two different states, failing to help Paul curb his addiction. She feels helpless as her spouse cycles through poorly supported positions as an recovery specialist in a environment fueled by the hostility and dread that underpins a political win. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt being cancelled on a platform, her professional designation altered from "author" to "property owner" on the online encyclopedia. Kraus still seems to invest excessive emotion about this. At one point she says that she's researching the homicide so that before leaving Minnesota, "she might be able to learn something about an the United States that her social media opponents would fail to comprehend, would overlook entirely".

The Homicide Account

So then we come to the homicide in question – and the eponymous day spent by the victim with the killer and his companions. The author possesses compelling foundational content, and details moment by moment what happened when the victim Brandon came to visit Brittney after meeting her on an app where she sold sex pictures. He was hoping for sex but seems amiably to have occupied the day with her companions, mooching around having his vehicle repaired and covering the cost of food and substances, before being murdered by Brittney's partner Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has often been institutionalized for aggressive outbursts.

Fascination and Incompletion

Catt develops an obsession by the story, and I found myself captivated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards responsible documentation and daring boundary-pushing tussle in this section. However, I would have preferred her to explore more thoroughly her individual preoccupations here. The most interesting character is Brittney, who gains dimension partly through the protagonist's connection to her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual derailing in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus tells us that Catt speaks to Brittney in detention, but she fails to enact these dialogues. This entire part feels oddly unfinished, to the extent that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par