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The new book is populated with protagonists pursuing clean slates, trying to break free from drugs or toxic relationships, only to find hope curdling into conflict. Kraus frequently uses the phrase "clean slate", making it deliberately jaded through recurring use. Sentences like "He aimed to start over" and "They chose to begin anew" are scattered across the story. At the same time, she seems to be making her own fresh start, as this seems a new kind of book – fact-based, authentically narrative. Yet it proves to be packed with the recurring issues and aesthetics as her previous works.

From Accidental Writer to Iconic Work

The writer was originally an visual artist who entered the literary world unintentionally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, made up of letters to an unreceptive lover, converting personal female narrative from humiliation into defiance. She continued writing, but the three subsequent compelling and abrasive novels did not possess the impact and rawness that the epistolary style imparted to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her position as a renegade artist who had turned into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was significant attention on real estate deals. It is logical that she now wants to experiment with new kinds of material, looking outwards to external narratives, at a period in which she asserts that Trumpian politics turns intimate literature unnecessary.

Multiple Generations, One Unescapable Past

The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, spanning three generations – each trapped by their backgrounds. We encounter the story of a couple named Emma and Jasper, versions of the author's parents, transitioning from the Bronx to a pastoral setting. There is the story of Kraus herself, in the persona of Catt Greene, reckoning with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse her husband Paul. Finally the narrative of a homicide of one directionless individual by another in a town largely deserted by progressive politics only a brief drive from the protagonist's home in rural Minnesota.

As a reader attracted to refined literature of the kind Kraus often avoids, I was seduced by the narrative style of the first section.

As someone who reads who favors crafted language of the kind that the author usually avoids, I was won over by the storytelling approach of the first section. There is a new quality of attentiveness that accommodates minutiae, like the bucket that the youthful Catt frees from the ice at the opening of the book, helped by her beloved father. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she exclaims; "a lovely toy", he responds, "the ambiguous meanings of language rolling around in their mouths like sweet treats". She tells Emma's story with interest and closeness. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not precisely her dream."

Letdown and Fragmentation

I was destined to be disappointed when I hoped this different style could last out the book. The author states here that she dislikes the satisfaction those who appreciate polished prose have taken from I Love Dick; she's committed to disjunction, to the messy artistic approach she has in common with her idol author Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her previous novels comes back in the middle section. Catt Greene is working on refurbishing multiple decrepit residences in the city's most challenging districts while shuttling between the Midwest and the West Coast, failing to help Paul manage his alcohol use. She feels helpless as Paul transitions between low-resource employment as an substance abuse counselor in a society driven by the hostility and dread that powers a political win. A significant portion discusses about the protagonist facing cancellation on Twitter, her professional designation altered from "author" to "landlord" on Wikipedia. Kraus still seems to invest excessive emotion about this. In a moment she says that she's investigating the murder so that before leaving Minnesota, "she may grasp something about an the nation that her Twitter detractors would be unable to grasp, would overlook entirely".

The Murder Narrative

Thus we arrive to the homicide in question – and the eponymous day passed by the deceased with the perpetrator and his companions. Kraus utilizes compelling foundational content, and knows hour by hour what occurred as a man named Brandon came to meet Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she marketed explicit images. He sought a sexual encounter but appears congenially to have passed the day alongside her friends, wandering about having his vehicle repaired and covering the cost of food and substances, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has repeatedly received inpatient care for violent rage.

Preoccupation and Open Ends

The protagonist becomes fixated by the story, and I found myself captivated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards ethical reporting and audacious rule-breaking clash in this segment. But I'd have liked her to delve deeper into her personal fixations here. The most interesting character is Brittney herself, 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. Kraus tells us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in detention, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. This entire part feels oddly unfinished, to the extent that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par