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This latest work centers on protagonists chasing after new beginnings, attempting to leave behind drugs or harmful partnerships, only to witness hope devolve into conflict. The author frequently uses the phrase "clean slate", transforming it into intentionally weary through its repetitions. Sentences like "He could make a fresh start" and "They decided to make a fresh start" appear throughout the narrative. At the same time, Kraus herself is embarking on her individual reinvention, because this seems a new kind of book – observational, truly literary. However it proves to be packed with the recurring issues and approaches as earlier books.

From Unplanned Author to Cult Classic

The writer began as an artist who entered the literary world unintentionally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, which was composed of missives to a distant beloved, elevating confessional female writing from self-debasement into assassination. She continued writing, but the next trio of engaging and challenging novels lacked the power and directness that the epistolary style infused into the narrative voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her position as a nonconformist creator who had evolved into a extensive real estate holder, so there was significant attention on property transactions. It is logical that she presently aims to try out new kinds of material, turning outward to other people's stories, at a period in which she asserts that contemporary political climate turns intimate literature redundant.

Multiple Generations, Collective Unavoidable Background

The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, encompassing three generations – all unable to escape their pasts. We encounter the tale of a couple named Emma and Jasper, based on her own mother and father, transitioning from the New York borough to rural Connecticut. There is the account of Kraus, in the persona of protagonist Catt Greene, confronting the late recognition of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse a man named Paul. The third thread involves the account of a killing of one directionless individual by another in a locality long abandoned by progressive politics only 80 miles from Catt's rural residence in a remote part of Minnesota.

For this reader drawn to honed writing of the kind Kraus tends to eschew, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the first section.

Being a reader who favors precise prose of the style that Kraus often disregards, I was won over by the novelistic voice of the opening segment. There is a fresh level of observation that makes room for minutiae, like the pail that the youthful Catt dislodges from ice at the start of the story, assisted by her beloved father. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she declares; "a lovely toy", he responds, "the nuanced interpretations of terms tumbling in their mouths like piece candy". She tells Emma's story with interest and closeness. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not hers, exactly."

Letdown and Fragmentation

I was destined to be disappointed when I wished this new voice could last out the book. The author states here that she is annoyed by the satisfaction those who appreciate polished prose have taken from I Love Dick; she's devoted to fragmentation, to the unpolished style she echoes from her idol author Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her previous novels comes back in the central part. Catt is working on refurbishing multiple decrepit residences in the city's most challenging districts while traveling between Minnesota and LA, unable to aid her husband control his drinking. She is overwhelmed as her spouse moves between underfunded jobs as an substance abuse counselor in a world propelled by the rage and anxiety that underpins an electoral success. A significant portion discusses about Catt's social media ostracism on Twitter, her occupation changed from "novelist" to "landlord" on the online encyclopedia. Kraus still seems to be overly concerned about this. In a moment she remarks that she's investigating the murder so that before departing the state, "she might be able to learn something about an America that her Twitter detractors would fail to comprehend, would not even perceive".

The Killing Story

So then we come to the murder itself – and the titular day spent by the victim with the murderer and his friends. The author possesses excellent raw material, and reconstructs step by step what happened when Brandon came to meet Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she marketed explicit images. He was hoping for sex but appears congenially to have passed the day in the company of her associates, loitering fixing his automobile and funding treats and narcotics, before being murdered by Brittney's boyfriend a man named Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has often been institutionalized for violent rage.

Fascination and Incompletion

The protagonist becomes fixated by the narrative, and I found myself captivated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards accurate chronicling and reckless transgression tussle in this section. However, I would have preferred her to delve deeper into her individual preoccupations here. The compelling persona is the character Brittney, who comes alive partially because of the protagonist's connection to her – another bright, bullied girl spiraling out of control in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus tells us that Catt speaks to Brittney in jail, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. The whole section feels oddly unfinished, to the point that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par