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This latest work is populated with characters pursuing new beginnings, struggling to escape drugs or abusive marriages, only to see hope turn into aggression. The author frequently uses the phrase "fresh start", making it intentionally weary through recurring use. Sentences like "He aimed to start over" and "They opted for a clean break" recur in the story. And yet, she appears to be undertaking her personal new beginning, because this presents as a new kind of book – observational, truly literary. However it turns out to be laden with the same dilemmas and styles as her previous works.

From Chance Novelist to Iconic Work

The writer was originally an visual artist who transitioned to writing unintentionally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, made up of letters to an unreceptive lover, elevating personal female narrative from abjection into rebellion. She persisted as a writer, but the three subsequent compelling and abrasive novels missed the shock and immediacy that the correspondence format brought to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her role as a renegade artist who had become a extensive real estate holder, so there was considerable focus on real estate deals. It makes sense that she currently desires to try out fresh narrative sources, looking outwards to the experiences of others, at a time when she claims that current political era makes confessional writing obsolete.

Several Eras, One Unescapable Past

The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, spanning three generations – none able to break free from their backgrounds. We encounter the narrative about characters Emma and Jasper, versions of the author's parents, relocating from the Bronx to rural Connecticut. Then there is the narrative of the author, 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 partner struggling with addiction her husband Paul. Finally the account of a killing of one directionless individual by another in a locality largely deserted by liberal ideals only a short distance from the protagonist's home in the Minnesota countryside.

As a reader attracted to refined literature of the kind the author herself typically rejects, I was seduced by the narrative style of the initial segment.

As someone who reads drawn to honed writing of the variety that Kraus usually avoids, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the opening segment. It exhibits a novel degree of detail that makes room for minutiae, like the container that the young Catt frees from the ice at the beginning of the narrative, aided by her adored dad. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she exclaims; "a lovely toy", he responds, "the ambiguous meanings of language tumbling in their mouths like sweet treats". She tells the tale of Emma with curiosity and intimacy. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not hers, exactly."

Disappointment and Disjunction

I was bound to become frustrated when I expected this fresh tone could persist to the end. The author states here that she dislikes the satisfaction audiences such as myself have taken from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disjunction, to the unpolished style she echoes from her inspiration writer Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her past books returns in the second segment. Catt Greene is working on refurbishing 36 run-down apartments in the city's most challenging districts while traveling between the Midwest and the West Coast, unsuccessful in assisting Paul curb his addiction. She experiences powerlessness as Paul transitions between underfunded jobs as an substance abuse counselor in a world fueled by the hostility and dread that underpins a political win. Multiple pages are devoted about the protagonist facing cancellation on a platform, her listed profession modified from "writer" to "real estate holder" on Wikipedia. Kraus still seems to be overly concerned about this. On one occasion she states that she's researching the homicide so that before exiting the region, "she may grasp something about an the nation that her social media opponents would not understand, would overlook entirely".

The Murder Narrative

So then we come to the murder itself – and the referenced day experienced by the murdered individual with the killer and his associates. Kraus has excellent raw material, and reconstructs step by step what happened when Brandon came to visit Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she marketed explicit images. He anticipated intimacy but appears congenially to have passed the day in the company of her associates, mooching around having his vehicle repaired and covering the cost of food and substances, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's partner a man named Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has repeatedly received inpatient care for fits of anger.

Preoccupation and Open Ends

Catt develops an obsession by the account, and I found myself captivated by the way that her twin drives towards accurate chronicling and reckless transgression tussle in this section. However, I would have preferred her to explore more thoroughly her own obsessions here. The standout figure is Brittney herself, who gains dimension in part due to Catt seeing herself in her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman going off the rails in a troubled, forgotten town. The author informs us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in prison, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The complete segment feels oddly unfinished, to the extent that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par