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The new book centers on individuals pursuing clean slates, trying to break free from addictions or harmful partnerships, only to see hope turn into conflict. Kraus frequently uses the phrase "clean slate", rendering it intentionally weary through constant reiteration. Phrases such as "He aimed to start over" and "They chose to begin anew" are scattered across the text. And yet, she appears to be undertaking her own fresh start, as this presents as a different type of work – documentarian, truly literary. But then it turns out to be packed with the same dilemmas and approaches as earlier books.

From Unplanned Author to Iconic Work

The writer started out as an artist who entered the literary world almost accidentally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, structured as letters to an unreceptive lover, elevating intimate women's literature from abjection into assassination. She kept producing books, but the following three compelling and abrasive novels did not possess the impact and rawness that the letter form imparted to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her identity as a maverick maker who had turned into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was considerable focus on real estate deals. It makes sense that she currently desires to experiment with new kinds of material, turning outward to external narratives, at a moment when she claims that current political era makes confessional writing unnecessary.

Multiple Generations, Shared Inescapable History

The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, encompassing several time periods – all unable to escape their pasts. There is the story of a couple named Emma and Jasper, representations of her own mother and father, relocating from the Bronx to a pastoral setting. Additionally the account of Kraus, in the guise of Catt Greene, confronting the belated success of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her addict husband Paul. Finally the story of the murder of one troubled youth by another in a community mostly forsaken by progressive politics only a brief drive from the protagonist's home in rural Minnesota.

As a reader fond of honed writing of the sort Kraus tends to eschew, I was enchanted by the narrative style of the first section.

As a reader drawn to crafted language of the style that Kraus tends to eschew, I was won over by the novelistic voice of the initial part. There is a fresh level of observation that accommodates small details, like the pail that the young Catt dislodges from ice at the start of the story, aided by her beloved father. "Look, an ice toy!" she declares; "a lovely toy", he replies, "the elliptical meanings of words rolling around in their mouths like piece candy". The author narrates Emma's story with interest and closeness. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not entirely her own."

Letdown and Fragmentation

I was fated to feel let down when I hoped this different style could last out the book. Kraus says here that she is annoyed by the enjoyment readers like me have gotten from I Love Dick; she's committed to disruption, to the untidy aesthetics she echoes from her hero Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her past books comes back in the middle section. Catt Greene is working on refurbishing multiple decrepit residences in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while shuttling between Minnesota and LA, failing to help her husband curb his addiction. She feels helpless as her spouse cycles through underfunded jobs as an recovery specialist in a society fueled by the hostility and dread that drives Trump's victory. There are several pages about Catt's social media ostracism on Twitter, her listed profession modified from "author" to "landlord" on the online encyclopedia. She still gives the impression to invest excessive emotion about this. At one point she states that she's looking into the killing so that before leaving Minnesota, "she could potentially understand something about an America that her social media opponents would fail to comprehend, would not even see".

The Killing Story

Then we reach to the murder itself – and the titular day experienced by the murdered individual with the killer and his friends. Kraus utilizes excellent raw material, and reconstructs step by step what occurred as a man named Brandon came to visit Brittney after meeting her on an app where she offered adult photos. He was hoping for sex but seems affably to have spent the day with her companions, loitering fixing his automobile and covering the cost of food and substances, before being shot by Brittney's partner a man named Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has often been institutionalized for violent rage.

Fascination and Incompletion

The protagonist becomes fixated by the story, and I was intrigued by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards responsible documentation and audacious rule-breaking clash in this segment. But I'd have liked her to go further into her individual preoccupations here. The most interesting character is Brittney herself, who becomes vivid in part due to the protagonist's connection to her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual going off the rails in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus tells us that Catt speaks to Brittney in detention, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. The whole section feels curiously unresolved, to the degree that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par