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This latest work features characters pursuing clean slates, attempting to leave behind substance abuse or abusive marriages, only to find hope curdling into violence. The author frequently uses the phrase "clean slate", transforming it into willfully cynical through recurring use. Sentences like "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They opted for a clean break" are scattered across the narrative. At the same time, Kraus herself appears to be undertaking her own fresh start, because this appears a different type of work – observational, genuinely novelistic. Yet it reveals itself to be filled with the same dilemmas and aesthetics as earlier books.

From Chance Novelist to Renowned Book

The writer began as an visual artist who entered the literary world almost accidentally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, which was composed of letters to an unreceptive lover, converting personal female narrative from abjection into assassination. She continued writing, but the three subsequent engaging and challenging novels lacked the power and directness that the letter form brought to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her position as a maverick maker who had evolved into a extensive real estate holder, so there was considerable focus on housing investments. It follows that she presently aims to explore fresh narrative sources, directing her gaze to the experiences of others, at a period in which she claims that Trumpian politics turns intimate literature unnecessary.

Multiple Generations, Shared Inescapable History

The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, covering multiple eras – none able to break free from their backgrounds. We encounter the tale of Emma and Jasper, representations of her own mother and father, relocating from the urban environment to the Connecticut countryside. There is the story of Kraus herself, in the guise of a figure named Catt Greene, confronting the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her addict husband her husband Paul. And there is the account of a killing of one directionless individual by another in a town long abandoned by progressive politics only a short distance from Catt's rural residence in a remote part of Minnesota.

As a reader fond of refined literature of the type the author herself typically rejects, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the first section.

As a reader who favors crafted language of the variety that Kraus herself usually avoids, I was won over by the literary tone of the first section. It exhibits a new quality of attentiveness that accommodates minutiae, like the bucket that the youthful Catt frees from the ice at the opening of the book, helped by her adored dad. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she exclaims; "a lovely toy", he responds, "the elliptical meanings of words tumbling in their mouths like hard candy". The author narrates Emma's story with curiosity and intimacy. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not entirely her own."

Disappointment and Disjunction

I was destined to be disappointed when I hoped this fresh tone could continue through the novel. Kraus says here that she is annoyed by the satisfaction audiences such as myself have gotten from I Love Dick; she's committed to disruption, to the unpolished style she has in common with her hero author Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her previous novels comes back in the second segment. The protagonist is attempting to do up multiple decrepit residences in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while shuttling between the Midwest and the West Coast, unsuccessful in assisting her husband curb his addiction. She feels helpless as Paul moves between underfunded jobs as an recovery specialist in a world propelled by the rage and anxiety that drives a political win. There are several pages about Catt being cancelled on Twitter, her listed profession modified from "writer" to "real estate holder" on Wikipedia. She still gives the impression to invest excessive emotion about this. In a moment she remarks that she's researching the homicide so that before departing the state, "she may grasp something about an America that her social media opponents would not understand, would not even perceive".

The Murder Narrative

Then we reach to the actual killing – and the eponymous day experienced by the murdered individual with the murderer and his associates. Kraus utilizes excellent raw material, and knows hour by hour what happened when Brandon came to meet Brittney after encountering her on a platform 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 covering the cost of food and substances, before being murdered by Brittney's partner Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has often been institutionalized for aggressive outbursts.

Fascination and Incompletion

The protagonist becomes fixated by the story, and I was fascinated by the way that her twin drives towards responsible documentation and audacious rule-breaking wrestle in this part. But I'd have liked her to delve deeper into her personal fixations here. The compelling persona is Brittney herself, who comes alive partially because of Catt's identification with her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman spiraling out of control in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus notes that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in detention, but she fails to enact these dialogues. This entire part feels curiously unresolved, to the degree that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par