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The new book centers on individuals chasing after clean slates, attempting to leave behind substance abuse or toxic relationships, only to find hope curdling into conflict. The author often employs the phrase "new beginning", transforming it into willfully cynical through constant reiteration. Examples include "He could make a fresh start" and "They decided to make a fresh start" recur in the story. And yet, Kraus herself appears to be undertaking her personal new beginning, because this appears a new kind of book – documentarian, truly literary. However it proves to be laden with the same dilemmas and approaches as her previous works.

From Unplanned Author to Renowned Book

Kraus was originally an visual artist who entered the literary world unintentionally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, structured as missives to a distant beloved, transforming intimate women's literature from abjection into defiance. She kept producing books, but the following three engaging and challenging novels did not possess the power and directness that the letter form infused into the narrative voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her position as a renegade artist who had evolved into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was significant attention on housing investments. It follows that she now wants to try out fresh narrative sources, directing her gaze to external narratives, at a period in which she asserts that contemporary political climate makes confessional writing unnecessary.

Multiple Generations, One Unescapable Past

The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, encompassing multiple eras – none able to break free from their histories. There is the story of Emma and Jasper, versions of her own mother and father, relocating from the Bronx to rural Connecticut. There is the story of Kraus herself, in the persona of protagonist Catt Greene, confronting the late recognition of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her addict husband Paul. And there is the narrative of a homicide of one troubled youth by another in a community long abandoned by forward-thinking policies only a brief drive from the protagonist's home in a remote part of Minnesota.

For this reader attracted to polished prose of the type Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the first section.

Being a reader who appreciates honed writing of the kind that Kraus usually avoids, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the first section. There is a fresh level of observation that allows space for small details, like the pail that the youthful Catt pries out of frozen water at the opening of the book, helped by her adored dad. "Look, an ice toy!" she says; "a lovely toy", he answers, "the elliptical meanings of words circulating in their speech like piece candy". She tells Emma's narrative with interest and closeness. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not entirely her own."

Letdown and Fragmentation

I was destined to be disappointed when I hoped this fresh tone could persist to the end. Kraus notes here that she resents the enjoyment audiences such as myself have derived from I Love Dick; she's committed to disruption, to the messy artistic approach she echoes from her idol Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her earlier works reasserts itself in the central part. Catt is attempting to do up 36 run-down apartments in the city's most challenging districts while traveling between two different states, unable to aid her husband manage his alcohol use. She experiences powerlessness as her spouse moves between poorly supported positions as an recovery specialist in a society driven by the rage and anxiety that underpins a political win. There are several pages about Catt being cancelled on a platform, her occupation changed from "author" to "landlord" on Wikipedia. Kraus still seems to care a little too much about this. On one occasion she states that she's researching the homicide so that before exiting the region, "she could potentially understand something about an America that her Twitter detractors would be unable to grasp, would not even perceive".

The Killing Story

So then we come to the murder itself – and the eponymous day passed by the deceased with the murderer and his companions. Kraus utilizes great source material, and reconstructs step by step what transpired when Brandon came to see Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she marketed explicit images. He anticipated intimacy but seems affably to have spent the day alongside her friends, loitering getting his car mended and covering the cost of food and substances, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's partner Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has often been institutionalized for aggressive outbursts.

Fascination and Incompletion

Catt gets obsessed by the narrative, and I was intrigued by the way that her twin drives towards responsible documentation and daring boundary-pushing wrestle in this part. However, I would have preferred her to explore more thoroughly her individual preoccupations here. The compelling persona is the character Brittney, who comes alive partly through Catt's identification with her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman spiraling out of control in a difficult, overlooked locality. The author informs us that Catt speaks to Brittney in jail, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. This entire part feels oddly unfinished, to the point that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par