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The new book centers on protagonists pursuing new beginnings, attempting to leave behind addictions or harmful partnerships, only to find hope curdling into conflict. The author repeatedly invokes the phrase "clean slate", transforming it into willfully cynical through constant reiteration. Sentences like "He aimed to start over" and "They opted for a clean break" recur in the story. And yet, Kraus herself seems to be making her personal new beginning, because this presents as a different type of work – observational, genuinely novelistic. However it proves to be filled with the recurring issues and aesthetics as past novels.

From Unplanned Author to Cult Classic

Kraus was originally an creative who entered the literary world unintentionally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, made up of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, elevating intimate women's literature from humiliation into assassination. She continued writing, but the three subsequent fascinating and rebarbative novels missed the power and directness that the letter form infused into the tone of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her position as a renegade artist who had turned into a extensive real estate holder, so there was much discussion on property transactions. It follows that she currently desires to explore fresh narrative sources, looking outwards to other people's stories, at a time when she states that contemporary political climate turns intimate literature unnecessary.

Three Generations, One Unescapable Past

The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, covering multiple eras – all unable to escape their pasts. The book includes the narrative about Emma and Jasper, representations of the author's parents, transitioning from the New York borough to rural Connecticut. Then there is the story of Kraus herself, in the persona of Catt Greene, confronting the belated success of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction Paul. And there is the narrative of a homicide of one troubled youth by another in a locality largely deserted by liberal ideals only 80 miles from Catt's rural residence in a remote part of Minnesota.

As a reader fond of honed writing of the type the author herself often avoids, I was enchanted by the literary tone of the initial segment.

As a reader who favors honed writing of the style that Kraus herself often disregards, I was won over by the literary tone of the first section. There is a new quality of attentiveness that accommodates trivial aspects, like the pail that the protagonist as a child pries out of frozen water at the opening of the book, assisted by her beloved father. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she says; "a lovely toy", he replies, "the elliptical meanings of words rolling around in their mouths like piece candy". She tells Emma's story with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not entirely her own."

Disappointment and Disjunction

I was fated to feel let down when I expected this new voice could continue through the novel. Kraus notes here that she is annoyed by the pleasure readers like me have gotten from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disjunction, to the unpolished style she echoes from her hero Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her earlier works comes back in the central part. The protagonist is working on refurbishing three dozen dilapidated units in the city's most challenging districts while moving between Minnesota and LA, failing to help Paul manage his alcohol use. She experiences powerlessness as Paul cycles through underfunded jobs as an addiction therapist in a world driven by the anger and fear that drives a political win. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt's social media ostracism on social media, her occupation changed from "author" to "real estate holder" on Wikipedia. The author still appears to invest excessive emotion about this. In a moment she states that she's investigating the murder so that before leaving Minnesota, "she may grasp something about an America that her Twitter detractors would be unable to grasp, would not even perceive".

The Killing Story

So then we come to the homicide in question – and the eponymous day passed by the deceased with the murderer and his companions. The author possesses excellent raw material, and details moment by moment what happened when a man named Brandon came to meet Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she marketed explicit images. He sought a sexual encounter but seems affably to have spent the day in the company of her associates, mooching around having his vehicle repaired and paying for snacks and drugs, before being shot by Brittney's partner Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has repeatedly received inpatient care for aggressive outbursts.

Preoccupation and Open Ends

Catt gets obsessed by the narrative, and I found myself captivated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards ethical reporting and reckless transgression wrestle in this part. Yet I wished her to explore more thoroughly her own obsessions here. The most interesting character is Brittney herself, who becomes vivid in part due to Catt's identification with her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual derailing in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus tells us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in detention, but she fails to enact these dialogues. This entire part feels oddly unfinished, to the point that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par