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This latest work features protagonists seeking new beginnings, trying to break free from addictions or abusive marriages, only to witness hope devolve into violence. Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "clean slate", rendering it willfully cynical through recurring use. Sentences like "He aimed to start over" and "They opted for a clean break" are scattered across the text. At the same time, she is embarking on her individual reinvention, since this presents as a new kind of book – documentarian, genuinely novelistic. But then it turns out to be laden with the recurring issues and approaches as her previous works.

From Accidental Writer to Renowned Book

The writer started out as an creative who entered the literary world somewhat by chance with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, structured as missives to a distant beloved, converting personal female narrative from humiliation into rebellion. She kept producing books, but the following three engaging and challenging novels lacked the impact and rawness that the correspondence format infused into the narrative voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her position as a maverick maker who had become a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was considerable focus on housing investments. It is logical that she now wants to experiment with different types of content, directing her gaze to other people's stories, at a moment when she states that Trumpian politics turns intimate literature obsolete.

Multiple Generations, One Unescapable Past

The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, encompassing several time periods – none able to break free from their pasts. We encounter the narrative about Emma and Jasper, representations of her own mother and father, relocating from the Bronx to the Connecticut countryside. There is the account of Kraus, in the character of protagonist Catt Greene, confronting the late recognition of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse Paul. And there is the story of the murder of one troubled youth by another in a community mostly forsaken by liberal ideals only a short distance from the protagonist's home in rural Minnesota.

From my perspective as a reader drawn to honed writing of the type Kraus tends to eschew, I was enchanted by the narrative style of the first section.

As someone who reads who appreciates precise prose of the variety that Kraus tends to eschew, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the opening segment. It possesses a fresh level of observation that accommodates trivial aspects, like the pail that the youthful Catt dislodges from ice at the start of the story, helped by her adored dad. "Look, an ice toy!" she declares; "a lovely toy", he replies, "the nuanced interpretations of terms circulating in their speech like sweet treats". The author narrates Emma's story with interest and closeness. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not entirely her own."

Letdown and Fragmentation

I was destined to be disappointed when I hoped this fresh tone could last out the book. The author states here that she dislikes the enjoyment those who appreciate polished prose have gotten from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to fragmentation, to the unpolished style she shares with her hero Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her past books returns in the second segment. Catt is attempting to do up 36 run-down apartments in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while shuttling between the Midwest and the West Coast, failing to help her husband manage his alcohol use. She feels helpless as Paul cycles through poorly supported positions as an substance abuse counselor in a world driven by the rage and anxiety that drives Trump's victory. There are several pages about the protagonist facing cancellation on a platform, her occupation changed 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 could potentially understand something about an America that her social media opponents would not understand, would overlook entirely".

The Murder Narrative

Then we reach to the murder itself – and the referenced day spent by the murdered individual with the killer and his friends. Kraus has compelling foundational content, and knows hour by hour what transpired when Brandon came to meet Brittney after connecting via an application where she marketed explicit images. He sought a sexual encounter but seems amiably to have occupied the day alongside her friends, mooching around having his vehicle repaired and paying for snacks and drugs, before being shot by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has frequently been hospitalised for aggressive outbursts.

Fascination and Incompletion

Catt gets obsessed by the account, and I was fascinated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards responsible documentation and daring boundary-pushing tussle in this section. Yet I wished her to delve deeper into her personal fixations here. The compelling persona is Brittney, who comes alive partially because of the protagonist's connection to her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual spiraling out of control in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus tells us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in detention, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The whole section feels curiously unresolved, to the point that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par