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This latest work is populated with characters pursuing fresh starts, trying to break free from substance abuse or toxic relationships, only to see hope turn into aggression. The author repeatedly invokes the phrase "clean slate", rendering it willfully cynical through constant reiteration. Phrases such as "He could make a fresh start" and "They chose to begin anew" recur in the text. Meanwhile, Kraus herself is embarking on her individual reinvention, because this seems a new kind of book – documentarian, authentically narrative. But then it turns out to be packed with the recurring issues and aesthetics as her previous works.

From Accidental Writer to Iconic Work

Kraus was originally an creative who entered the literary world somewhat by chance with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, which was composed of missives to a distant beloved, converting confessional female writing from humiliation into assassination. She persisted as a writer, but the following three fascinating and rebarbative novels did not possess the power and directness that the correspondence format imparted to the tone of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her role as a renegade artist who had become a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was significant attention on real estate deals. It makes sense that she currently desires to try out new kinds of material, turning outward to the experiences of others, at a moment when she claims that contemporary political climate turns intimate literature obsolete.

Several Eras, One Unescapable Past

The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, covering three generations – each trapped by their histories. We encounter the story of a couple named Emma and Jasper, based on the author's parents, relocating from the urban environment to rural Connecticut. There is the narrative of the author, in the character of a figure named Catt Greene, confronting the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse a man named Paul. The third thread involves the narrative of a homicide of one lost young man by another in a community long abandoned by liberal ideals only 80 miles from Catt's cottage in the Minnesota countryside.

From my perspective as a reader attracted to polished prose of the type Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was enchanted by the novelistic voice of the first section.

As someone who reads who appreciates honed writing of the variety that the author often disregards, I was captivated by the storytelling approach of the first section. It possesses a fresh level of observation that makes room for trivial aspects, like the bucket that the young Catt dislodges from ice at the beginning of the narrative, aided by her adored dad. "Look, an ice toy!" she says; "a nice toy", he answers, "the elliptical meanings of words circulating in their speech like piece candy". The author narrates the tale of Emma with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not entirely her own."

Disappointment and Disjunction

I was bound to become frustrated when I wished this fresh tone could persist to the end. The author states here that she dislikes the enjoyment readers like me have derived from I Love Dick; she's committed to fragmentation, to the unpolished style she has in common with her hero writer Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her past books reasserts itself in the central part. Catt Greene is working on refurbishing 36 run-down apartments in the city's most challenging districts while moving between Minnesota and LA, unable to aid her husband manage his alcohol use. She experiences powerlessness as Paul cycles through underfunded jobs as an substance abuse counselor in a world fueled by the hostility and dread that drives an electoral success. Multiple pages are devoted about the protagonist facing cancellation on Twitter, her professional designation altered from "writer" to "landlord" on a reference site. Kraus still seems to be overly concerned about this. At one point she states that she's researching the homicide so that before departing the state, "she might be able to learn something about an America that her online critics would not understand, would overlook entirely".

The Murder Narrative

Thus we arrive to the homicide in question – and the eponymous day passed by the murdered individual with the killer and his companions. The author possesses excellent raw material, and knows hour by hour what occurred as the victim Brandon came to see Brittney after meeting her on an app where she marketed explicit images. He was hoping for sex but seems affably to have spent the day with her companions, mooching around getting his car mended and covering the cost of food and substances, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has repeatedly received inpatient care for fits of anger.

Fascination and Incompletion

Catt gets obsessed by the story, and I was intrigued by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards ethical reporting and daring boundary-pushing clash in this segment. Yet I wished her to go further into her individual preoccupations here. The compelling persona is the character Brittney, who comes alive partly through the protagonist's connection to her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual going off the rails in a troubled, forgotten town. The author informs us that Catt converses with Brittney in prison, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The whole section feels oddly unfinished, to the extent that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par