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This latest work features characters pursuing fresh starts, trying to break free from drugs or harmful partnerships, only to find hope curdling into conflict. The author frequently uses the phrase "clean slate", making it deliberately jaded through its repetitions. Phrases such as "He could make a fresh start" and "They chose to begin anew" recur in the text. At the same time, Kraus herself appears to be undertaking her individual reinvention, as this seems a different type of work – observational, truly literary. Yet it reveals itself to be packed with the same dilemmas and aesthetics as her previous works.

From Chance Novelist to Renowned Book

Kraus began as an creative who transitioned to writing somewhat by chance with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, structured as letters to an unreceptive lover, elevating personal female narrative from humiliation into defiance. She continued writing, but the three subsequent engaging and challenging novels lacked the power and directness that the epistolary style infused into the voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her position as a maverick maker who had evolved into a major property owner, so there was much discussion on real estate deals. It follows that she now wants to explore fresh narrative sources, directing her gaze to the experiences of others, at a moment when she states that current political era renders personal narrative redundant.

Several Eras, One Unescapable Past

The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, covering several time periods – each trapped by their backgrounds. The book includes the narrative about a couple named Emma and Jasper, based on the author's parents, transitioning from the Bronx to the Connecticut countryside. There is the narrative of the author, in the character of a figure named Catt Greene, grappling with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction her husband Paul. The third thread involves the narrative of a homicide of one troubled youth by another in a locality long abandoned by forward-thinking policies only a short distance from Catt's rural residence in the Minnesota countryside.

From my perspective as a reader attracted to polished prose of the kind the author herself typically rejects, I was seduced by the literary tone of the initial segment.

Being a reader drawn to honed writing of the kind that Kraus herself often disregards, I was won over by the storytelling approach of the first section. There is a fresh level of observation that accommodates small details, like the bucket that the protagonist as a child dislodges from ice at the start of the story, aided by her adored dad. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she exclaims; "a nice toy", he responds, "the nuanced interpretations of terms circulating in their speech like piece candy". She tells Emma's narrative with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not precisely her dream."

Frustration and Disruption

I was destined to be disappointed when I wished this different style could last out the book. Kraus notes here that she resents the enjoyment those who appreciate polished prose have derived from I Love Dick; she's committed to fragmentation, to the untidy aesthetics she has in common with her hero Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her past books returns in the central part. Catt is trying to renovate three dozen dilapidated units in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while shuttling between the Midwest and the West Coast, unsuccessful in assisting Paul curb his addiction. She experiences powerlessness as Paul moves between underfunded jobs as an addiction therapist in a society fueled by the rage and anxiety that underpins Trump's victory. A significant portion discusses about Catt's social media ostracism on a platform, her occupation changed from "novelist" to "landlord" on the online encyclopedia. The author still appears to be overly concerned about this. At one point she states that she's investigating the murder so that before leaving Minnesota, "she might be able to learn something about an the United States that her Twitter detractors would not understand, would not even perceive".

The Killing Story

Then we reach to the murder itself – and the referenced day spent by the murdered individual with the murderer and his friends. Kraus utilizes great source material, and reconstructs step by step what occurred as Brandon came to visit Brittney after meeting her on an app where she marketed explicit images. He anticipated intimacy but appears congenially to have passed the day with her companions, loitering fixing his automobile and funding treats and narcotics, before being shot by Brittney's partner Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has frequently been hospitalised for aggressive outbursts.

Preoccupation and Open Ends

The protagonist becomes fixated by the story, and I found myself captivated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards accurate chronicling and audacious rule-breaking tussle in this section. However, I would have preferred her to go further into her own obsessions here. The compelling persona is Brittney herself, who becomes vivid partly through Catt's identification with her – another bright, bullied girl going off the rails in a struggling, neglected community. The author informs us that Catt converses with Brittney in prison, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. This entire part feels oddly unfinished, to the degree that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par