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This latest work features characters seeking clean slates, trying to break free from addictions or toxic relationships, only to witness hope devolve into aggression. The author frequently uses the phrase "clean slate", making it willfully cynical through its repetitions. Examples include "He aimed to start over" and "They chose to begin anew" recur in the story. At the same time, she appears to be undertaking her personal new beginning, as this appears a new kind of book – fact-based, truly literary. Yet it proves to be filled with the familiar conflicts and styles as her previous works.

From Chance Novelist to Iconic Work

The writer was originally an artist who became a writer almost accidentally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, structured as epistles to an unresponsive love interest, converting confessional female writing from self-debasement into defiance. She persisted as a writer, but the three subsequent engaging and challenging novels did not possess the impact and rawness that the correspondence format imparted to the 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 significant attention on property transactions. It is logical that she currently desires to explore different types of content, turning outward to other people's stories, at a time when she states that contemporary political climate turns intimate literature redundant.

Three Generations, Shared Inescapable History

The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, encompassing three generations – none able to break free from their histories. We encounter the tale of characters Emma and Jasper, representations of Kraus's parents, moving from the Bronx to rural Connecticut. Additionally the account of Kraus, in the persona of protagonist Catt Greene, grappling with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse a man named Paul. Finally the story of the murder of one troubled youth by another in a town mostly forsaken by progressive politics only a brief drive from the protagonist's home in rural Minnesota.

From my perspective as a reader fond of honed writing of the kind Kraus tends to eschew, I was enchanted by the literary tone of the first section.

As someone who reads drawn to crafted language of the kind that Kraus tends to eschew, I was seduced by the literary tone of the initial part. There is a fresh level of observation that allows space for trivial aspects, like the container that the youthful Catt dislodges from ice at the beginning of the narrative, assisted by her adored dad. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she says; "a great plaything", he replies, "the nuanced interpretations of terms tumbling in their mouths like hard candy". She tells Emma's narrative with interest and closeness. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not hers, exactly."

Frustration and Disruption

I was destined to be disappointed when I expected this different style could persist to the end. The author states here that she dislikes the pleasure those who appreciate polished prose have taken from I Love Dick; she's committed to disjunction, to the untidy aesthetics she echoes from her inspiration writer Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her past books returns in the middle section. Catt Greene is trying to renovate multiple decrepit residences in the city's most challenging districts while shuttling between two different states, failing to help her husband control his drinking. She feels helpless as Paul moves between underfunded jobs as an recovery specialist in a environment fueled by the hostility and dread that drives a political win. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt's social media ostracism on a platform, her professional designation altered from "writer" to "landlord" on the online encyclopedia. Kraus still seems to be overly concerned about this. At one point she states that she's researching the homicide so that before leaving Minnesota, "she may grasp something about an the nation that her Twitter detractors would be unable to grasp, would not even perceive".

The Murder Narrative

Thus we arrive to the actual killing – and the eponymous day experienced by the deceased with the murderer and his companions. Kraus has compelling foundational content, and knows hour by hour what happened when 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 amiably to have occupied the day in the company of her associates, wandering about getting his car mended and paying for snacks and drugs, before being killed by gunfire by her romantic interest Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has often been institutionalized for aggressive outbursts.

Fascination and Incompletion

The protagonist becomes fixated by the account, and I found myself captivated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards responsible documentation and audacious rule-breaking clash in this segment. However, I would have preferred her to delve deeper into her individual preoccupations here. The compelling persona is the character Brittney, who comes alive in part due to Catt seeing herself in her – another bright, bullied girl going off the rails in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus tells us that Catt converses with Brittney in detention, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. This entire part feels oddly unfinished, to the degree that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par