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The new book centers on characters chasing after fresh starts, attempting to leave behind substance abuse or toxic relationships, only to see hope turn into aggression. The author often employs the phrase "clean slate", rendering it deliberately jaded through its repetitions. Phrases such as "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They decided to make a fresh start" recur in the text. Meanwhile, the author herself appears to be undertaking her individual reinvention, because this presents as a novel form of writing – observational, genuinely novelistic. Yet it reveals itself to be laden with the recurring issues and aesthetics as her previous works.

From Unplanned Author to Iconic Work

Kraus started out as an creative who entered the literary world somewhat by chance with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, made up of letters to an unreceptive lover, transforming intimate women's literature from abjection into assassination. She kept producing books, but the following three compelling and abrasive novels missed the impact and rawness that the correspondence format brought to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her role as a renegade artist who had evolved into a major property owner, so there was considerable focus on real estate deals. It makes sense that she now wants to explore new kinds of material, turning outward to other people's stories, at a period in which she asserts that current political era makes confessional writing obsolete.

Several Eras, Shared Inescapable History

The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, spanning several time periods – none able to break free from their backgrounds. The book includes the narrative about characters Emma and Jasper, based on Kraus's parents, moving from the New York borough to a pastoral setting. Then there is the narrative of the author, in the guise of Catt Greene, reckoning with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction a man named Paul. Finally the narrative of a homicide of one directionless individual by another in a locality mostly forsaken by liberal ideals only a short distance from Catt's cottage in a remote part of Minnesota.

For this reader drawn to polished prose of the sort the author herself often avoids, I was captivated by the narrative style of the opening part.

Being a reader drawn to precise prose of the style that Kraus herself usually avoids, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the opening segment. It exhibits a new quality of attentiveness that accommodates small details, like the container that the protagonist as a child pries out of frozen water at the start of the story, aided by her adored dad. "Look, an ice toy!" she declares; "a nice toy", he replies, "the ambiguous meanings of language tumbling in their mouths like sweet treats". She tells 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 hoped this fresh tone could persist to the end. The author states here that she resents the satisfaction those who appreciate polished prose have taken from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disruption, to the messy artistic approach she shares with her hero author Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her previous novels reasserts itself in the central part. Catt is attempting to do up multiple decrepit residences in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while moving between two different states, unable to aid Paul manage his alcohol use. She experiences powerlessness as Paul moves between underfunded jobs as an substance abuse counselor in a environment driven by the hostility and dread that drives a political win. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt being cancelled on a platform, her listed profession modified from "novelist" to "real estate holder" on the online encyclopedia. Kraus still seems to be overly concerned about this. At one point she remarks that she's investigating the murder so that before departing the state, "she may grasp something about an the nation that her social media opponents would not understand, would overlook entirely".

The Murder Narrative

Then we reach to the homicide in question – and the referenced day passed by the deceased with the perpetrator and his friends. Kraus has excellent raw material, and reconstructs step by step what transpired when Brandon came to visit Brittney after meeting her on an app where she offered adult photos. He anticipated intimacy but seems amiably to have occupied the day alongside her friends, mooching around getting his car mended and covering the cost of food and substances, before being murdered by Brittney's partner Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has frequently been hospitalised for aggressive outbursts.

Obsession and Unfinished Business

The protagonist becomes fixated by the story, and I was fascinated by the way that her twin drives towards responsible documentation and daring boundary-pushing tussle in this section. But I'd have liked her to explore more thoroughly her individual preoccupations here. The compelling persona is the character Brittney, who comes alive in part due to Catt seeing herself in her – another bright, bullied girl spiraling out of control in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus notes that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in detention, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. The complete segment feels curiously unresolved, to the degree that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par