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This latest work centers on protagonists pursuing new beginnings, struggling to escape substance abuse or harmful partnerships, only to see hope turn into conflict. Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "fresh start", transforming it into deliberately jaded through recurring use. Sentences like "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They opted for a clean break" appear throughout the narrative. And yet, she is embarking on her personal new beginning, as this presents as a novel form of writing – observational, genuinely novelistic. Yet it turns out to be packed with the familiar conflicts and styles as earlier books.

From Accidental Writer to Renowned Book

Kraus began as an visual artist who entered the literary world unintentionally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, made up of missives to a distant beloved, transforming personal female narrative from self-debasement into defiance. She kept producing books, but the next trio of compelling and abrasive novels did not possess the power and directness that the correspondence format infused into the narrative voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her identity as a renegade artist 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, looking outwards to external narratives, at a moment when she states that current political era renders personal narrative obsolete.

Three Generations, Shared Inescapable History

The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, covering three generations – each trapped by their histories. We encounter the story of characters Emma and Jasper, representations of the author's parents, relocating from the urban environment to a pastoral setting. Then there is the narrative of the author, in the character of Catt Greene, grappling with the belated success of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her addict husband a man named Paul. The third thread involves the narrative of a homicide of one troubled youth by another in a locality long abandoned by forward-thinking policies only a short distance from the protagonist's home in the Minnesota countryside.

From my perspective as a reader attracted to refined literature of the type Kraus typically rejects, I was enchanted by the narrative style of the opening part.

As someone who reads who favors honed writing of the kind that Kraus tends to eschew, I was seduced by the storytelling approach of the initial part. It possesses a fresh level of observation that accommodates trivial aspects, like the bucket that the protagonist as a child frees from the ice at the beginning of the narrative, assisted by her cherished parent. "Look, an ice toy!" she declares; "a lovely toy", he responds, "the nuanced interpretations of terms rolling around in their mouths like hard candy". She tells the tale of Emma with interest and closeness. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not precisely her dream."

Frustration and Disruption

I was fated to feel let down when I expected this new voice could continue through the novel. Kraus notes here that she resents the enjoyment readers like me have taken from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disruption, to the messy artistic approach she has in common with her inspiration writer Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her earlier works comes back in the central part. Catt is working on refurbishing three dozen dilapidated units in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while traveling between Minnesota and LA, unsuccessful in assisting her husband curb his addiction. She feels helpless as Paul moves between underfunded jobs as an recovery specialist in a society fueled by the hostility and dread that drives a political win. There are several pages about Catt's social media ostracism on social media, her listed profession modified from "author" to "real estate holder" on Wikipedia. She still gives the impression to invest excessive emotion about this. On one occasion she states that she's investigating the murder so that before leaving Minnesota, "she may grasp something about an the nation that her Twitter detractors would not understand, would not even see".

The Killing Story

Then we reach to the actual killing – and the referenced day spent by the victim with the perpetrator and his companions. Kraus has excellent raw material, and knows hour by hour what transpired when Brandon came to see Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she sold sex pictures. He was hoping for sex but appears congenially to have passed the day with her companions, mooching around getting his car mended and funding treats and narcotics, before being shot by Brittney's partner a man named Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has repeatedly received inpatient care for violent rage.

Fascination and Incompletion

Catt gets obsessed by the narrative, and I was fascinated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards accurate chronicling and audacious rule-breaking tussle in this section. However, I would have preferred her to delve deeper into her individual preoccupations here. The standout figure is Brittney herself, who gains dimension partly through Catt's identification with her – another bright, bullied girl going off the rails in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus tells us that Catt converses with Brittney in detention, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The complete segment feels strangely incomplete, to the extent that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par