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This latest work is populated with characters seeking clean slates, attempting to leave behind addictions or abusive marriages, only to see hope turn into aggression. The author repeatedly invokes the phrase "fresh start", making it deliberately jaded through constant reiteration. Examples include "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They opted for a clean break" are scattered across the story. At the same time, Kraus herself is embarking on her individual reinvention, as this appears a novel form of writing – documentarian, authentically narrative. However it turns out to be filled with the same dilemmas and styles as past novels.

From Chance Novelist to Cult Classic

Kraus started out as an artist who transitioned to writing almost accidentally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, made up of letters to an unreceptive lover, converting personal female narrative from humiliation into assassination. She continued writing, but the following three fascinating and rebarbative novels missed the shock and immediacy that the epistolary style infused into the tone of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her role as a maverick maker who had evolved into a major property owner, so there was significant attention on property transactions. It makes sense that she currently desires to experiment with new kinds of material, directing her gaze to other people's stories, at a moment when she asserts that current political era renders personal narrative unnecessary.

Multiple Generations, Shared Inescapable History

The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, encompassing three generations – each trapped by their histories. We encounter the story of a couple named Emma and Jasper, based on her own mother and father, transitioning from the New York borough to a pastoral setting. Then there is the narrative of the author, in the character of a figure named Catt Greene, grappling with the belated success of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse a man named Paul. And there is the narrative of a homicide of one directionless individual by another in a town largely deserted by forward-thinking policies only a brief drive from the protagonist's home in a remote part of Minnesota.

For this reader drawn to polished prose of the type the author herself tends to eschew, I was enchanted by the narrative style of the first section.

Being a reader drawn to crafted language of the variety that the author often disregards, I was won over by the novelistic voice of the first section. There is a fresh level of observation that accommodates trivial aspects, like the bucket that the young Catt pries out of frozen water at the opening of the book, assisted by her cherished parent. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she declares; "a lovely toy", he replies, "the elliptical meanings of words tumbling in their mouths like sweet treats". Kraus writes Emma's narrative with curiosity and intimacy. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not entirely her own."

Letdown and Fragmentation

I was fated to feel let down when I hoped this new voice could continue through the novel. Kraus says here that she is annoyed by the enjoyment readers like me have derived from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disjunction, to the messy artistic approach she echoes from her hero author Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her previous novels returns in the second segment. Catt Greene is working on refurbishing multiple decrepit residences in the city's most challenging districts while moving between Minnesota and LA, failing to help Paul curb his addiction. She experiences powerlessness as Paul transitions between poorly supported positions as an recovery specialist in a environment propelled by the rage and anxiety that underpins an electoral success. A significant portion discusses about Catt's social media ostracism on social media, her occupation changed from "author" to "property owner" on the online encyclopedia. Kraus still seems to care a little too much about this. On one occasion she remarks that she's researching the homicide so that before departing the state, "she might be able to learn something about an the nation that her online critics would fail to comprehend, would not even see".

The Homicide Account

Then we reach to the actual killing – and the titular day passed by the victim with the perpetrator and his associates. The author possesses excellent raw material, and knows hour by hour what occurred as the victim Brandon came to visit Brittney after meeting her on an app where she marketed explicit images. He was hoping for sex but seems affably to have spent the day with her companions, mooching around getting his car mended and paying for snacks and drugs, before being shot by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has often been institutionalized for violent rage.

Obsession and Unfinished Business

The protagonist becomes fixated by the story, and I was intrigued by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards ethical reporting and daring boundary-pushing tussle in this section. Yet I wished her to delve deeper into her own obsessions here. The standout figure is Brittney, who becomes vivid partially because of the protagonist's connection to her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual spiraling out of control in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus notes that Catt converses with Brittney in detention, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The complete segment feels curiously unresolved, to the extent that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par