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This latest work is populated with characters chasing after new beginnings, struggling to escape drugs or toxic relationships, only to see hope turn into conflict. The author often employs the phrase "fresh start", transforming it into willfully cynical through recurring use. Examples include "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They decided to make a fresh start" recur in the text. And yet, Kraus herself seems to be making her personal new beginning, since this seems a new kind of book – observational, truly literary. Yet it turns out to be laden with the recurring issues and styles as earlier books.

From Accidental Writer to Iconic Work

Kraus began as an visual artist who entered the literary world unintentionally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, made up of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, converting confessional female writing from humiliation into rebellion. She kept producing books, but the following three fascinating and rebarbative novels missed the power and directness that the epistolary style brought to the voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her identity as a maverick maker who had evolved into a extensive real estate holder, so there was considerable focus on real estate deals. It makes sense that she presently aims to explore fresh narrative sources, turning outward to other people's stories, at a time when she states that Trumpian politics renders personal narrative redundant.

Several Eras, One Unescapable Past

The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, spanning multiple eras – each trapped by their pasts. There is the narrative about characters Emma and Jasper, based on her own mother and father, transitioning from the urban environment to a pastoral setting. There is the story of Kraus herself, in the persona of a figure named Catt Greene, confronting the late recognition of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her addict husband Paul. And there is the narrative of a homicide of one directionless individual by another in a community largely deserted by liberal ideals only a short distance from Catt's cottage in rural Minnesota.

For this reader drawn to refined literature of the sort Kraus typically rejects, I was captivated by the narrative style of the first section.

As someone who reads who appreciates crafted language of the variety that Kraus herself often disregards, I was won over by the novelistic voice of the opening segment. It exhibits a fresh level of observation that allows space for minutiae, like the bucket that the youthful Catt frees from the ice at the start of the story, assisted by her adored dad. "Look, an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a great plaything", he responds, "the ambiguous meanings of language rolling around in their mouths like piece candy". She tells the tale of Emma with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not hers, exactly."

Disappointment and Disjunction

I was destined to be disappointed when I hoped this different style could persist to the end. The author states here that she is annoyed by the satisfaction those who appreciate polished prose have taken from I Love Dick; she's committed to disruption, to the messy artistic approach she has in common with her hero author Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her previous novels returns in the central part. The protagonist is working on refurbishing multiple decrepit residences in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while traveling between two different states, unsuccessful in assisting her husband curb his addiction. She experiences powerlessness as Paul cycles through poorly supported positions as an addiction therapist in a environment fueled by the anger and fear that underpins a political win. There are several pages about Catt's social media ostracism on Twitter, her professional designation altered from "writer" to "property owner" on the online encyclopedia. Kraus still seems to care a little too much about this. At one point she remarks that she's looking into the killing so that before departing the state, "she may grasp something about an the nation that her Twitter detractors would be unable to grasp, would not even perceive".

The Murder Narrative

So then we come to the actual killing – and the eponymous day passed by the murdered individual with the murderer and his associates. The author possesses great source material, and knows hour by hour what transpired when the victim Brandon came to visit Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she offered adult photos. He anticipated intimacy but seems affably to have spent the day in the company of her associates, wandering about getting his car mended and covering the cost of food and substances, before being shot by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has often been institutionalized for violent rage.

Obsession and Unfinished Business

Catt develops an obsession by the account, and I found myself captivated by the way that her twin drives towards responsible documentation and reckless transgression wrestle in this part. Yet I wished her to delve deeper into her personal fixations here. The standout figure is the character Brittney, who becomes vivid partly through Catt's identification with her – another bright, bullied girl spiraling out of control in a troubled, forgotten town. The author informs us that Catt converses with Brittney in prison, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The whole section feels strangely incomplete, to the degree that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par