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The new book centers on individuals pursuing fresh starts, attempting to leave behind addictions or toxic relationships, only to witness hope devolve into conflict. The author repeatedly invokes the phrase "fresh start", transforming it into willfully cynical through recurring use. Phrases such as "He could make a fresh start" and "They chose to begin anew" recur in the narrative. Meanwhile, the author herself seems to be making her own fresh start, since this presents as a different type of work – fact-based, authentically narrative. But then it proves to be packed with the recurring issues and styles as earlier books.

From Unplanned Author to Cult Classic

The writer started out as an artist who became a writer unintentionally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, made up of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, elevating intimate women's literature from humiliation into defiance. She kept producing books, but the three subsequent fascinating and rebarbative novels did not possess the shock and immediacy that the letter form imparted to the tone of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her position as a nonconformist creator who had evolved into a major property owner, so there was much discussion on housing investments. It follows that she now wants to experiment with fresh narrative sources, turning outward to external narratives, at a period in which she claims that Trumpian politics renders personal narrative unnecessary.

Multiple Generations, Collective Unavoidable Background

The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, spanning three generations – none able to break free from their pasts. The book includes the story of characters Emma and Jasper, based on the author's parents, transitioning from the New York borough to a pastoral setting. Then there is the account of Kraus, in the persona of a figure named Catt Greene, confronting the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse Paul. The third thread involves the story of the murder of one troubled youth by another in a locality mostly forsaken by liberal ideals only 80 miles from Catt's cottage in rural Minnesota.

For this reader fond of refined literature of the kind the author herself often avoids, I was enchanted by the literary tone of the opening part.

As a reader who appreciates crafted language of the kind that the author usually avoids, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the first section. It exhibits a novel degree of detail that accommodates trivial aspects, like the bucket that the youthful Catt pries out of frozen water at the beginning of the narrative, helped by her adored dad. "I found an ice toy!" she declares; "a nice toy", he answers, "the ambiguous meanings of language circulating in their speech like hard candy". Kraus writes Emma's narrative with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not hers, exactly."

Disappointment and Disjunction

I was destined to be disappointed when I hoped this different style could last out the book. The author states here that she dislikes the satisfaction audiences such as myself have taken from I Love Dick; she's committed to disruption, to the unpolished style she has in common with her idol Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her past books reasserts itself in the middle section. The protagonist is attempting to do up multiple decrepit residences in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while shuttling between Minnesota and LA, unsuccessful in assisting her husband manage his alcohol use. She is overwhelmed as Paul cycles through poorly supported positions as an recovery specialist in a society fueled by the anger and fear that drives an electoral success. There are several pages about Catt's social media ostracism on social media, her professional designation altered from "novelist" to "property owner" on the online encyclopedia. She still gives the impression 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 America that her online critics would not understand, would not even see".

The Murder Narrative

Thus we arrive to the murder itself – and the titular day spent by the victim with the killer and his associates. Kraus has great source material, and knows hour by hour what happened when a man named Brandon came to see Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she sold sex pictures. He sought a sexual encounter but seems amiably to have occupied the day alongside her friends, mooching around fixing his automobile and paying for snacks and drugs, before being killed by gunfire by her romantic interest a man named Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has repeatedly received inpatient care for fits of anger.

Obsession and Unfinished Business

Catt develops an obsession by the account, and I was fascinated by the way that her twin drives towards responsible documentation and audacious rule-breaking tussle in this section. However, I would have preferred her to explore more thoroughly her personal fixations here. The most interesting character is Brittney, who gains dimension partly through the protagonist's connection to her – another bright, bullied girl derailing in a troubled, forgotten town. The author informs us that Catt speaks to Brittney in detention, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. The whole section feels oddly unfinished, to the point that her narrative ends almost mid-par