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This latest work centers on characters chasing after clean slates, trying to break free from drugs or toxic relationships, only to see hope turn into violence. Kraus frequently uses the phrase "clean slate", transforming it into intentionally weary through recurring use. Phrases such as "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They chose to begin anew" recur in the narrative. At the same time, the author herself appears to be undertaking her personal new beginning, as this appears a novel form of writing – fact-based, genuinely novelistic. Yet it reveals itself to be filled with the same dilemmas and approaches as her previous works.

From Accidental Writer to Cult Classic

The writer was originally an artist who became a writer unintentionally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, made up of letters to an unreceptive lover, converting intimate women's literature from self-debasement into defiance. She kept producing books, but the next trio of compelling and abrasive novels lacked the power and directness that the letter form brought to the tone of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her role as a renegade artist who had evolved into a major property owner, so there was much discussion on property transactions. It follows that she presently aims to try out fresh narrative sources, directing her gaze to external narratives, at a period in which she states that contemporary political climate makes confessional writing redundant.

Several Eras, Collective Unavoidable Background

The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, encompassing several time periods – each trapped by their histories. There is the story of Emma and Jasper, based on her own mother and father, relocating from the urban environment to the Connecticut countryside. There is the account of Kraus, in the character of Catt Greene, grappling with the belated success of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her addict husband Paul. And there is the account of a killing of one troubled youth by another in a locality largely deserted by progressive politics only 80 miles from Catt's cottage in rural Minnesota.

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

As a reader who favors honed writing of the style that Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the first section. There is a fresh level of observation that makes room for trivial aspects, like the container that the youthful Catt dislodges from ice at the opening of the book, helped by her beloved father. "Look, an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a nice toy", he replies, "the ambiguous meanings of language rolling around in their mouths like hard candy". Kraus writes the tale of Emma with interest and closeness. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not entirely her own."

Disappointment and Disjunction

I was bound to become frustrated when I hoped this different style could last out the book. Kraus notes here that she resents the enjoyment audiences such as myself have taken from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to fragmentation, to the messy artistic approach she has in common with her idol author Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her previous novels comes back in the central part. Catt is trying to renovate three dozen dilapidated units in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while shuttling between the Midwest and the West Coast, failing to help Paul control his drinking. She is overwhelmed as her spouse cycles through low-resource employment as an recovery specialist in a environment fueled by the hostility and dread that drives an electoral success. There are several pages about Catt being cancelled on a platform, her professional designation altered from "author" to "real estate holder" on a reference site. The author still appears to invest excessive emotion about this. At one point she says that she's researching the homicide so that before exiting the region, "she may grasp something about an America that her Twitter detractors would fail to comprehend, would not even see".

The Killing Story

Then we reach to the murder itself – and the titular day experienced by the murdered individual with the killer and his friends. Kraus utilizes excellent raw material, and details moment by moment what occurred as the victim Brandon came to visit Brittney after meeting her on an app where she sold sex pictures. He anticipated intimacy but appears congenially to have passed the day with her companions, wandering about getting his car mended and paying for snacks and drugs, before being shot by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has often been institutionalized for fits of anger.

Preoccupation and Open Ends

Catt gets obsessed by the account, and I found myself captivated by the way that her twin drives towards responsible documentation and reckless transgression wrestle in this part. Yet I wished her to explore more thoroughly her personal fixations here. The most interesting character is the character Brittney, who comes alive partially because of Catt seeing herself in her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman going off the rails in a struggling, neglected community. The author informs us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in prison, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The whole section feels oddly unfinished, to the point that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par