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The new book features individuals pursuing fresh starts, struggling to escape drugs or toxic relationships, only to see hope turn into aggression. Kraus often employs the phrase "clean slate", making it willfully cynical through constant reiteration. Examples include "He could make a fresh start" and "They chose to begin anew" are scattered across the narrative. And yet, the author herself appears to be undertaking her individual reinvention, as this seems a new kind of book – observational, authentically narrative. Yet it reveals itself to be laden with the recurring issues and approaches as earlier books.

From Accidental Writer to Iconic Work

The writer was originally an creative who became a writer unintentionally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, structured as missives to a distant beloved, elevating personal female narrative from humiliation into assassination. She persisted as a writer, but the following three fascinating and rebarbative novels missed the impact and rawness that the letter form infused into 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 is logical that she now wants to experiment with fresh narrative sources, directing her gaze to external narratives, at a period in which she claims that contemporary political climate makes confessional writing unnecessary.

Several Eras, One Unescapable Past

The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, spanning several time periods – all unable to escape their pasts. There is the narrative about a couple named Emma and Jasper, versions of the author's parents, moving from the New York borough to the Connecticut countryside. Then there is the story of Kraus herself, in the guise of Catt Greene, grappling with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her addict husband Paul. Finally the narrative of a homicide of one directionless individual by another in a locality long abandoned by forward-thinking policies only 80 miles from Catt's cottage in the Minnesota countryside.

As a reader attracted to polished prose of the kind the author herself tends to eschew, I was captivated by the narrative style of the initial segment.

As someone who reads who appreciates honed writing of the variety that the author usually avoids, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the initial part. It possesses a novel degree of detail that accommodates small details, like the bucket that the young Catt frees from the ice at the beginning of the narrative, assisted by her cherished parent. "Look, an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a lovely toy", he answers, "the elliptical meanings of words rolling around in their mouths like piece candy". Kraus writes Emma's story with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not entirely her own."

Letdown and Fragmentation

I was bound to become frustrated when I wished this new voice could last out the book. Kraus notes here that she resents the enjoyment those who appreciate polished prose have gotten from I Love Dick; she's committed to disjunction, to the messy artistic approach she echoes from her inspiration writer Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her previous novels comes back in the central part. Catt is trying to renovate 36 run-down apartments in the city's most challenging districts while moving between two different states, failing to help Paul curb his addiction. She is overwhelmed as Paul transitions between poorly supported positions as an addiction therapist in a world propelled by the rage and anxiety that underpins Trump's victory. Multiple pages are devoted about the protagonist facing cancellation on a platform, her occupation changed from "author" to "property owner" on Wikipedia. Kraus still seems to invest excessive emotion about this. On one occasion she says that she's researching the homicide so that before departing the state, "she may grasp something about an the United States that her online critics would be unable to grasp, would not even see".

The Homicide Account

Thus we arrive to the homicide in question – and the titular day spent by the deceased with the murderer and his companions. Kraus utilizes great source material, and reconstructs step by step what transpired when Brandon came to visit Brittney after meeting her on an app where she sold sex pictures. He sought a sexual encounter but appears congenially to have passed the day alongside her friends, loitering having his vehicle repaired and covering the cost of food and substances, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has frequently been hospitalised for violent rage.

Obsession and Unfinished Business

Catt gets obsessed by the account, and I was intrigued by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards responsible documentation and daring boundary-pushing tussle in this section. However, I would have preferred her to go further into her individual preoccupations here. The standout figure is the character Brittney, who becomes vivid partially because of the protagonist's connection to her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman derailing in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus notes that Catt speaks to Brittney in jail, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. The complete segment feels oddly unfinished, to the point that her narrative ends almost mid-par