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This latest work is populated with individuals chasing after clean slates, attempting to leave behind substance abuse or toxic relationships, only to see hope turn into conflict. The author repeatedly invokes the phrase "new beginning", making it intentionally weary through constant reiteration. Phrases such as "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They decided to make a fresh start" recur in the story. And yet, Kraus herself appears to be undertaking her individual reinvention, as this appears a novel form of writing – fact-based, authentically narrative. Yet it proves to be packed with the familiar conflicts and approaches as past novels.

From Chance Novelist to Renowned Book

The writer started out as an artist who became a writer unintentionally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, made up of letters to an unreceptive lover, transforming intimate women's literature from humiliation into assassination. She persisted as a writer, but the next trio of compelling and abrasive novels lacked the impact and rawness that the letter form imparted to the voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her role as a maverick maker who had turned into a extensive real estate holder, so there was much discussion on real estate deals. It is logical that she currently desires to try out new kinds of material, turning outward to external narratives, at a period in which she states that contemporary political climate renders personal narrative unnecessary.

Several Eras, Shared Inescapable History

The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, covering several time periods – all unable to escape their pasts. There is the tale of characters Emma and Jasper, versions of her own mother and father, relocating from the urban environment to rural Connecticut. Then there is the narrative of the author, in the persona of protagonist Catt Greene, confronting the late recognition of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her substance-dependent spouse her husband Paul. Finally the story of the murder of one directionless individual by another in a community mostly forsaken by liberal ideals only a brief drive from Catt's rural residence in rural Minnesota.

As a reader attracted to honed writing of the kind the author herself tends to eschew, I was captivated by the narrative style of the first section.

As a reader drawn to honed writing of the variety that the author tends to eschew, I was seduced by the literary tone of the opening segment. It possesses a novel degree of detail that makes room for trivial aspects, like the pail that the protagonist as a child dislodges from ice at the start of the story, helped by her adored dad. "I found an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a lovely toy", he replies, "the nuanced interpretations of terms circulating in their speech like sweet treats". The author narrates Emma's narrative with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not hers, exactly."

Frustration and Disruption

I was fated to feel let down when I expected this fresh tone could last out the book. Kraus says here that she dislikes the enjoyment audiences such as myself have gotten from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disjunction, to the untidy aesthetics she has in common with her idol writer Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her previous novels reasserts itself in the middle section. Catt is attempting to do up 36 run-down apartments in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while shuttling between two different states, failing to help Paul manage his alcohol use. She is overwhelmed as Paul moves between low-resource employment as an substance abuse counselor in a world driven by the hostility and dread that powers Trump's victory. There are several pages about Catt being cancelled on Twitter, her occupation changed from "novelist" to "real estate holder" on a reference site. Kraus still seems to care a little too much about this. At one point she says that she's looking into the killing so that before departing the state, "she may grasp something about an the United States that her online critics would fail to comprehend, would not even perceive".

The Homicide Account

Thus we arrive to the homicide in question – and the referenced day spent by the murdered individual with the killer and his friends. The author possesses great source material, and knows hour by hour what happened when Brandon came to see Brittney after meeting her on an app where she offered adult photos. He sought a sexual encounter but appears congenially to have passed the day with her companions, wandering about having his vehicle repaired and covering the cost of food and substances, before being murdered by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has repeatedly received inpatient care for violent rage.

Obsession and Unfinished Business

Catt develops an obsession by the story, and I found myself captivated by the way that her twin drives towards ethical reporting and reckless transgression tussle in this section. But I'd have liked her to explore more thoroughly her individual preoccupations here. The standout figure is the character Brittney, who becomes vivid partially because of the protagonist's connection to her – another bright, bullied girl going off the rails in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus tells us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in detention, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. This entire part feels curiously unresolved, to the point that her narrative ends almost mid-par