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This latest work is populated with individuals seeking clean slates, struggling to escape drugs or abusive marriages, only to witness hope devolve into violence. Kraus often employs the phrase "fresh start", transforming it into intentionally weary through recurring use. Sentences like "He could make a fresh start" and "They decided to make a fresh start" recur in the story. At the same time, Kraus herself is embarking on her personal new beginning, since this appears a new kind of book – documentarian, truly literary. However it reveals itself to be laden with the recurring issues and approaches as past novels.

From Unplanned Author to Cult Classic

Kraus started out as an visual artist who became a writer unintentionally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, made up of letters to an unreceptive lover, elevating personal female narrative from humiliation into defiance. She continued writing, but the next trio of fascinating and rebarbative novels missed the impact and rawness that the letter form brought to the voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her role as a renegade artist who had evolved into a major property owner, so there was considerable focus on real estate deals. It makes sense that she presently aims to try out new kinds of material, directing her gaze to other people's stories, at a time when she asserts that contemporary political climate turns intimate literature obsolete.

Several Eras, One Unescapable Past

The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, encompassing multiple eras – all unable to escape their backgrounds. We encounter the narrative about Emma and Jasper, based on the author's parents, transitioning from the urban environment to a pastoral setting. There is the account of Kraus, in the guise of Catt Greene, grappling with the belated success of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse a man named Paul. The third thread involves the narrative of a homicide of one troubled youth by another in a town mostly forsaken by progressive politics only 80 miles from Catt's rural residence in a remote part of Minnesota.

For this reader drawn to refined literature of the type Kraus herself often avoids, I was enchanted by the narrative style of the first section.

As a reader who favors crafted language of the style that Kraus often disregards, I was captivated by the literary tone of the first section. It possesses a fresh level of observation that allows space for trivial aspects, like the container that the youthful Catt dislodges from ice at the beginning of the narrative, assisted by her adored dad. "I found an ice toy!" she says; "a lovely toy", he responds, "the nuanced interpretations of terms rolling around in their mouths like piece candy". She tells Emma's story with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not precisely her dream."

Frustration and Disruption

I was bound to become frustrated when I hoped this new voice could last out the book. The author states here that she dislikes the enjoyment those who appreciate polished prose have derived from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to fragmentation, to the unpolished style she shares with her hero author Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her earlier works comes back in the middle section. The protagonist is working on refurbishing 36 run-down apartments in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while moving between two different states, unsuccessful in assisting Paul control his drinking. She experiences powerlessness as Paul moves between underfunded jobs as an substance abuse counselor in a society fueled by the anger and fear that drives a political win. There are several pages about Catt being cancelled on Twitter, her occupation changed from "writer" to "property owner" on Wikipedia. Kraus still seems to invest excessive emotion about this. In a moment she says that she's researching the homicide so that before exiting the region, "she might be able to learn something about an the United States that her online critics would be unable to grasp, would overlook entirely".

The Murder Narrative

Then we reach to the murder itself – and the referenced day spent by the victim with the murderer and his associates. Kraus has excellent raw material, and knows hour by hour what occurred as the victim Brandon came to meet Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she offered adult photos. He anticipated intimacy but seems amiably to have occupied the day with her companions, loitering fixing his automobile and paying for snacks and drugs, before being shot by Brittney's partner a man named Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has often been institutionalized for violent rage.

Obsession and Unfinished Business

Catt develops an obsession by the narrative, and I found myself captivated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards ethical reporting and audacious rule-breaking wrestle in this part. Yet I wished her to go further into her individual preoccupations here. The compelling persona is Brittney herself, who gains dimension partially because of Catt seeing herself in her – another bright, bullied girl spiraling out of control in a troubled, forgotten town. The author informs us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in jail, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The complete segment feels strangely incomplete, to the extent that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par