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This latest work features individuals chasing after clean slates, struggling to escape substance abuse or toxic relationships, only to see hope turn into conflict. Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "new beginning", transforming it into willfully cynical through its repetitions. Examples include "He aimed to start over" and "They chose to begin anew" recur in the narrative. And yet, Kraus herself is embarking on her individual reinvention, since this seems a new kind of book – observational, genuinely novelistic. However it proves to be filled with the same dilemmas and styles as past novels.

From Unplanned Author to Renowned Book

Kraus started out as an creative who became a writer somewhat by chance with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, structured as letters to an unreceptive lover, elevating personal female narrative from abjection into rebellion. She persisted as a writer, but the following three compelling and abrasive novels lacked the impact and rawness that the letter form brought to the tone of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her identity as a maverick maker who had become a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was much discussion on housing investments. It makes sense that she currently desires to try out different types of content, looking outwards to other people's stories, at a period in which she claims that contemporary political climate turns intimate literature obsolete.

Several Eras, Shared Inescapable History

The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, encompassing three generations – none able to break free from their backgrounds. There is the narrative about characters Emma and Jasper, versions of Kraus's parents, transitioning from the New York borough to rural Connecticut. Then there is the narrative of the author, in the persona of a figure named Catt Greene, reckoning with the belated success of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her addict husband Paul. Finally the story of the murder of one troubled youth by another in a locality largely deserted by forward-thinking policies only a brief drive from Catt's cottage in rural Minnesota.

As a reader drawn to honed writing of the type Kraus herself typically rejects, I was captivated by the narrative style of the initial segment.

Being a reader who appreciates honed writing of the style that the author often disregards, I was captivated by the storytelling approach of the initial part. It possesses a fresh level of observation that allows space for small details, like the bucket that the young Catt pries out of frozen water at the opening of the book, assisted by her adored dad. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she exclaims; "a great plaything", he answers, "the nuanced interpretations of terms tumbling in their mouths like piece candy". She tells Emma's narrative with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not hers, exactly."

Frustration and Disruption

I was destined to be disappointed when I expected this different style could last out the book. The author states here that she is annoyed by the pleasure those who appreciate polished prose have taken from I Love Dick; she's committed to disjunction, to the untidy aesthetics she shares with her inspiration writer Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her past books comes back in the middle section. Catt is working on refurbishing 36 run-down apartments in the city's most challenging districts while moving between the Midwest and the West Coast, failing to help her husband control his drinking. She feels helpless as Paul transitions between low-resource employment as an recovery specialist in a society propelled by the anger and fear that powers an electoral success. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt's social media ostracism on social media, her occupation changed from "writer" to "real estate holder" on a reference site. The author still appears to care a little too much about this. On one occasion she says that she's researching the homicide so that before leaving Minnesota, "she may grasp something about an the United States that her online critics would be unable to grasp, would overlook entirely".

The Murder Narrative

Thus we arrive to the actual killing – and the referenced day spent by the deceased with the perpetrator and his companions. Kraus has great source material, and knows hour by hour what happened when Brandon came to see Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she marketed explicit images. He sought a sexual encounter but seems affably to have spent the day alongside her friends, mooching around having his vehicle repaired and funding treats and narcotics, before being murdered by her romantic interest Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has frequently been hospitalised for violent rage.

Fascination and Incompletion

The protagonist becomes fixated by the narrative, and I was fascinated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards ethical reporting and audacious rule-breaking wrestle in this part. But I'd have liked her to explore more thoroughly her individual preoccupations here. The most interesting character is the character Brittney, who becomes vivid in part due to the protagonist's connection to her – another bright, bullied girl derailing in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus notes that Catt speaks to Brittney in prison, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. The complete segment feels strangely incomplete, to the point that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par