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This latest work centers on characters pursuing fresh starts, attempting to leave behind substance abuse or toxic relationships, only to see hope turn into aggression. Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "clean slate", rendering it willfully cynical through recurring use. Sentences like "He aimed to start over" and "They chose to begin anew" recur in the story. And yet, she appears to be undertaking her personal new beginning, as this presents as a different type of work – observational, genuinely novelistic. Yet it reveals itself to be laden with the recurring issues and styles as her previous works.

From Accidental Writer to Renowned Book

The writer began as an artist who became a writer unintentionally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, made up of missives to a distant beloved, transforming intimate women's literature from abjection into assassination. She kept producing books, but the next trio of engaging and challenging novels missed the shock and immediacy that the epistolary style imparted to the tone of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her role as a renegade artist who had evolved into a extensive real estate holder, so there was significant attention on property transactions. It is logical that she now wants to experiment with new kinds of material, directing her gaze to external narratives, at a moment when she claims that current political era makes confessional writing redundant.

Several Eras, Shared Inescapable History

The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, spanning multiple eras – all unable to escape their histories. The book includes the narrative about a couple named Emma and Jasper, based on Kraus's parents, relocating from the urban environment to a pastoral setting. There is the narrative of the author, in the guise of protagonist Catt Greene, grappling with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse her husband Paul. The third thread involves the narrative of a homicide of one lost young man by another in a community mostly forsaken by liberal ideals only a short distance from Catt's cottage in the Minnesota countryside.

From my perspective as a reader drawn to polished prose of the kind the author herself typically rejects, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the first section.

As a reader who favors precise prose of the style that the author often disregards, I was won over by the literary tone of the first section. It exhibits a novel degree of detail that makes room for small details, like the pail that the protagonist as a child frees from the ice at the start of the story, helped by her adored dad. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she exclaims; "a great plaything", he answers, "the nuanced interpretations of terms rolling around in their mouths like sweet treats". The author narrates the tale of Emma with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not hers, exactly."

Letdown and Fragmentation

I was fated to feel let down when I expected this new voice could last out the book. Kraus notes here that she is annoyed by the pleasure audiences such as myself have gotten from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disjunction, to the messy artistic approach she shares with her hero Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her past books returns in the middle section. Catt Greene is working on refurbishing multiple decrepit residences in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while shuttling between two different states, unsuccessful in assisting her husband control his drinking. She feels helpless as Paul cycles through underfunded jobs as an substance abuse counselor in a environment fueled by the hostility and dread that drives an electoral success. A significant portion discusses about Catt being cancelled on Twitter, her professional designation altered from "author" to "landlord" on a reference site. She still gives the impression to be overly concerned about this. At one point she states that she's researching the homicide so that before exiting the region, "she might be able to learn something about an America that her social media opponents would not understand, would not even perceive".

The Killing Story

So then we come to the murder itself – and the eponymous day passed by the murdered individual with the murderer and his companions. The author possesses compelling foundational content, and details moment by moment what transpired when Brandon came to meet Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she offered adult photos. He was hoping for sex but seems amiably to have occupied the day with her companions, mooching around having his vehicle repaired and covering the cost of food and substances, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's partner a man named Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has repeatedly received inpatient care for aggressive outbursts.

Preoccupation and Open Ends

Catt develops an obsession by the narrative, and I was fascinated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards accurate chronicling and audacious rule-breaking tussle in this section. Yet I wished her to go further into her individual preoccupations here. The most interesting character is the character Brittney, who becomes vivid partly through Catt's identification with her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual going off the rails in a difficult, overlooked locality. The author informs us that Catt converses with Brittney in detention, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The whole section feels oddly unfinished, to the point that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par