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The new book features characters pursuing fresh starts, trying to break free from substance abuse or toxic relationships, only to witness hope devolve into violence. The author often employs the phrase "clean slate", rendering it willfully cynical through constant reiteration. Examples include "He aimed to start over" and "They opted for a clean break" recur in the story. And yet, the author herself is embarking on her individual reinvention, since this appears a novel form of writing – documentarian, genuinely novelistic. But then it reveals itself to be packed with the same dilemmas and approaches as her previous works.

From Chance Novelist to Cult Classic

The writer started out as an creative who transitioned to writing unintentionally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, which was composed of missives to a distant beloved, converting personal female narrative from abjection into defiance. She continued writing, but the following three compelling and abrasive novels missed the impact and rawness that the letter form brought to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her role as a maverick maker who had evolved into a major property owner, so there was considerable focus on property transactions. It is logical that she currently desires to try out new kinds of material, looking outwards to external narratives, at a period in which she asserts that contemporary political climate turns intimate literature obsolete.

Three Generations, One Unescapable Past

The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, spanning three generations – each trapped by their histories. We encounter the story of characters Emma and Jasper, based on her own mother and father, relocating from the urban environment to rural Connecticut. There is the account of Kraus, in the persona of a figure named Catt Greene, grappling with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse her husband Paul. Finally the story of the murder of one troubled youth by another in a town long abandoned by liberal ideals only a brief drive from Catt's cottage in a remote part of Minnesota.

From my perspective as a reader attracted to refined literature of the kind Kraus tends to eschew, I was enchanted by the literary tone of the opening part.

As a reader who appreciates crafted language of the variety that Kraus tends to eschew, I was seduced by the literary tone of the first section. There is a novel degree of detail that allows space for trivial aspects, like the bucket that the protagonist as a child frees from the ice at the start of the story, aided by her cherished parent. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she exclaims; "a great plaything", he responds, "the elliptical meanings of words circulating in their speech like hard candy". The author narrates Emma's story with curiosity and intimacy. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not hers, exactly."

Letdown and Fragmentation

I was fated to feel let down when I hoped this new voice could last out the book. Kraus says here that she is annoyed by the enjoyment readers like me have taken from I Love Dick; she's committed to disruption, to the unpolished style she shares with her idol Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her previous novels comes back in the second segment. Catt is trying to renovate 36 run-down apartments in the city's most challenging districts while shuttling between two different states, failing to help Paul manage his alcohol use. She experiences powerlessness as her spouse moves between underfunded jobs as an substance abuse counselor in a society propelled by the rage and anxiety that powers a political win. A significant portion discusses about Catt's social media ostracism on a platform, her listed profession modified from "author" to "landlord" on the online encyclopedia. Kraus still seems to invest excessive emotion about this. At one point she remarks 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 overlook entirely".

The Homicide Account

Thus we arrive to the homicide in question – and the titular day passed by the deceased with the killer and his associates. The author possesses compelling foundational content, and knows hour by hour what transpired when the victim Brandon came to visit Brittney after connecting via an application where she sold sex pictures. He anticipated intimacy but seems amiably to have occupied the day alongside her friends, wandering about fixing his automobile and funding treats and narcotics, before being shot by her romantic interest a man named Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has repeatedly received inpatient care for aggressive outbursts.

Obsession and Unfinished Business

The protagonist becomes fixated by the narrative, and I was intrigued by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards ethical reporting and reckless transgression tussle in this section. But I'd have liked her to delve deeper into her individual preoccupations here. The compelling persona is Brittney, who comes alive partly through Catt's identification with her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman derailing in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus notes that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in prison, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The whole section feels oddly unfinished, to the degree that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par