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The Four Spent the Day Together is populated with protagonists chasing after new beginnings, struggling to escape substance abuse or harmful partnerships, only to see hope turn into aggression. The author often employs the phrase "new beginning", rendering it intentionally weary through constant reiteration. Examples include "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They opted for a clean break" appear throughout the text. And yet, she appears to be undertaking her personal new beginning, because this seems a new kind of book – observational, genuinely novelistic. But then it reveals itself to be filled with the same dilemmas and aesthetics as earlier books.

From Chance Novelist to Cult Classic

Kraus began as an artist who entered the literary world almost accidentally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, which was composed of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, converting personal female narrative from humiliation into assassination. She persisted as a writer, but the next trio of engaging and challenging novels missed the power and directness that the letter form brought to the voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her role as a nonconformist creator who had become a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was much discussion on real estate deals. It is logical that she now wants to try out new kinds of material, turning outward to the experiences of others, at a time when she states that current political era renders personal narrative redundant.

Three Generations, One Unescapable Past

The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, spanning several time periods – all unable to escape their histories. The book includes the story of a couple named Emma and Jasper, versions of the author's parents, relocating from the Bronx to the Connecticut countryside. There is the account of Kraus, in the character of a figure named Catt Greene, grappling with the belated success of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her partner struggling with addiction a man named Paul. And there is the account of a killing of one lost young man by another in a locality mostly forsaken by forward-thinking policies only a brief drive from Catt's cottage in the Minnesota countryside.

For this reader fond of polished prose of the type Kraus tends to eschew, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the initial segment.

Being a reader who favors honed writing of the style that the author tends to eschew, I was seduced by the storytelling approach of the first section. There is a fresh level of observation that makes room for trivial aspects, like the container that the youthful Catt dislodges from ice at the opening of the book, assisted by her cherished parent. "Look, an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a great plaything", he responds, "the elliptical meanings of words tumbling in their mouths like sweet treats". She tells Emma's story with inquiry and familiarity. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not hers, exactly."

Frustration and Disruption

I was fated to feel let down when I expected this fresh tone could persist to the end. Kraus says here that she dislikes the satisfaction those who appreciate polished prose have taken from I Love Dick; she's committed to disruption, to the messy artistic approach she shares with her hero writer Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her earlier works reasserts itself in the middle section. The protagonist is trying to renovate 36 run-down apartments in the city's most challenging districts while moving between two different states, unable to aid Paul control his drinking. She feels helpless as Paul moves between poorly supported positions as an recovery specialist in a world propelled by the hostility and dread that powers an electoral success. There are several pages about Catt's social media ostracism on a platform, her occupation changed from "writer" to "real estate holder" on a reference site. The author still appears to be overly concerned about this. At one point she remarks that she's researching the homicide so that before departing the state, "she might be able to learn something about an America that her online critics would not understand, would not even perceive".

The Killing Story

So then we come to the murder itself – and the eponymous day experienced by the deceased with the killer and his friends. Kraus utilizes great source material, and details moment by moment what transpired when a man named Brandon came to meet Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she offered adult photos. He anticipated intimacy but seems affably to have spent the day in the company of her associates, mooching around getting his car mended and covering the cost of food and substances, before being killed by gunfire 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

The protagonist becomes fixated by the account, and I was intrigued by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards ethical reporting and daring boundary-pushing tussle in this section. However, I would have preferred her to delve deeper into her individual preoccupations here. The most interesting character is the character Brittney, who becomes vivid partially because of Catt's identification with her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman derailing in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus notes that Catt speaks to Brittney in jail, but she fails to enact these dialogues. This entire part feels strangely incomplete, to the point that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par