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This latest work features protagonists pursuing fresh starts, struggling to escape drugs or harmful partnerships, only to witness hope devolve into conflict. The author repeatedly invokes the phrase "clean slate", making it deliberately jaded through recurring use. Examples include "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They opted for a clean break" are scattered across the text. At the same time, she seems to be making her personal new beginning, since this presents as a different type of work – fact-based, truly literary. Yet it reveals itself to be filled with the familiar conflicts and styles as earlier books.

From Accidental Writer to Cult Classic

The writer began as an artist who transitioned to writing somewhat by chance with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, structured as epistles to an unresponsive love interest, transforming intimate women's literature from self-debasement into assassination. She continued writing, but the next trio of engaging and challenging novels lacked the impact and rawness that the correspondence format brought to the tone 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 much discussion on real estate deals. It is logical that she presently aims to try out different types of content, looking outwards to external narratives, at a moment when she states that current political era renders personal narrative unnecessary.

Three Generations, Shared Inescapable History

The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, covering several time periods – each trapped by their backgrounds. There is the narrative about Emma and Jasper, versions of Kraus's parents, transitioning from the urban environment to the Connecticut countryside. Additionally the story of Kraus herself, in the guise of protagonist Catt Greene, confronting the late recognition of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction her husband Paul. And there is the narrative of a homicide of one directionless individual by another in a community largely deserted by forward-thinking policies only a short distance from Catt's rural residence in rural Minnesota.

From my perspective as a reader attracted to refined literature of the kind Kraus tends to eschew, I was enchanted by the narrative style of the initial segment.

As someone who reads who appreciates honed writing of the style that Kraus usually avoids, I was won over by the literary tone of the opening segment. It possesses a novel degree of detail that makes room for minutiae, like the container that the youthful Catt pries out of frozen water at the beginning of the narrative, helped by her adored dad. "I found an ice toy!" she declares; "a great plaything", he responds, "the ambiguous meanings of language rolling around in their mouths like hard candy". She tells Emma's story with curiosity and intimacy. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not hers, exactly."

Disappointment and Disjunction

I was destined to be disappointed when I wished this fresh tone could last out the book. The author states here that she dislikes the pleasure those who appreciate polished prose have derived from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disjunction, to the untidy aesthetics she shares with her hero writer Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her previous novels comes back in the second segment. The protagonist is working on refurbishing multiple decrepit residences in the city's most challenging districts while traveling between two different states, unsuccessful in assisting Paul curb his addiction. She feels helpless as Paul cycles through low-resource employment as an recovery specialist in a environment driven by the hostility and dread that drives an electoral success. A significant portion discusses about Catt's social media ostracism on Twitter, her occupation changed from "author" to "real estate holder" on the online encyclopedia. She still gives the impression to invest excessive emotion about this. On one occasion she states that she's looking into the killing so that before exiting the region, "she may grasp something about an America that her Twitter detractors would be unable to grasp, would not even perceive".

The Homicide Account

Then we reach to the murder itself – and the referenced day experienced by the deceased with the murderer and his associates. Kraus has excellent raw material, and details moment by moment what occurred as the victim Brandon came to meet Brittney after connecting via an application where she offered adult photos. He sought a sexual encounter but appears congenially to have passed the day in the company of her associates, mooching around getting his car mended and funding treats and narcotics, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's partner Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has repeatedly received inpatient care for aggressive outbursts.

Obsession and Unfinished Business

Catt gets obsessed by the narrative, and I was fascinated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards accurate chronicling and audacious rule-breaking clash in this segment. But I'd have liked her to go further into her individual preoccupations here. The standout figure is the character Brittney, who becomes vivid partially because of Catt's identification with her – another bright, bullied girl going off the rails in a difficult, overlooked locality. The author informs us that Catt speaks to Brittney in detention, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The whole section feels strangely incomplete, to the degree that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par