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The new book is populated with characters pursuing fresh starts, trying to break free from drugs or abusive marriages, only to see hope turn into conflict. The author repeatedly invokes the phrase "clean slate", transforming it into deliberately jaded through recurring use. Examples include "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They opted for a clean break" recur in the text. And yet, Kraus herself appears to be undertaking her own fresh start, as this seems a new kind of book – observational, genuinely novelistic. Yet it reveals itself to be filled with the recurring issues and aesthetics as her previous works.

From Accidental Writer to Cult Classic

The writer began as an creative who entered the literary world almost accidentally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, made up of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, converting personal female narrative from abjection into assassination. She kept producing books, but the three subsequent compelling and abrasive novels lacked the impact and rawness that the letter form brought to the voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her role as a nonconformist creator who had turned into a extensive real estate holder, so there was significant attention on real estate deals. It follows that she now wants to try out fresh narrative sources, looking outwards to external narratives, at a period in which she claims that current political era renders personal narrative redundant.

Three Generations, Shared Inescapable History

The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, encompassing several time periods – each trapped by their backgrounds. There is the tale of characters Emma and Jasper, based on the author's parents, transitioning from the Bronx to the Connecticut countryside. Then there is the story of Kraus herself, in the character of protagonist Catt Greene, grappling with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse a man named Paul. The third thread involves the narrative of a homicide of one directionless individual by another in a community long abandoned by forward-thinking policies only 80 miles from Catt's rural residence in a remote part of Minnesota.

As a reader attracted to refined literature of the type Kraus often avoids, I was enchanted by the novelistic voice of the opening part.

As someone who reads drawn to precise prose of the style that the author tends to eschew, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the first section. It possesses a fresh level of observation that allows space for trivial aspects, like the pail that the youthful Catt dislodges from ice at the beginning of the narrative, aided by her cherished parent. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she says; "a nice toy", he responds, "the nuanced interpretations of terms rolling around in their mouths like hard candy". The author narrates Emma's narrative with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not precisely her dream."

Disappointment and Disjunction

I was fated to feel let down when I hoped this different style could last out the book. Kraus says here that she resents the satisfaction readers like me have derived from I Love Dick; she's committed to fragmentation, to the untidy aesthetics she has in common with her hero Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her past books returns in the second segment. The protagonist is attempting to do up 36 run-down apartments in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while moving between the Midwest and the West Coast, unable to aid her husband curb his addiction. She is overwhelmed as her spouse cycles through poorly supported positions as an recovery specialist in a world propelled by the anger and fear that drives an electoral success. There are several pages about Catt's social media ostracism on social media, her professional designation altered from "novelist" to "property owner" on the online encyclopedia. Kraus still seems to care a little too much about this. At one point she states that she's researching the homicide so that before leaving Minnesota, "she could potentially understand something about an America that her Twitter detractors would be unable to grasp, would overlook entirely".

The Murder Narrative

So then we come to the actual killing – and the eponymous day experienced by the deceased with the killer and his associates. Kraus has compelling foundational content, and knows hour by hour what occurred as Brandon came to visit Brittney after connecting via an application where she sold sex pictures. He was hoping for sex but appears congenially to have passed the day with her companions, wandering about fixing his automobile and covering the cost of food and substances, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's partner Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has frequently been hospitalised for fits of anger.

Fascination and Incompletion

The protagonist becomes fixated by the narrative, and I was fascinated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards accurate chronicling and daring boundary-pushing wrestle in this part. Yet I wished her to delve deeper into her individual preoccupations here. The most interesting character is the character Brittney, 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 tells us that Catt converses with Brittney in prison, but she fails to enact these dialogues. This entire part feels oddly unfinished, to the degree that her narrative ends almost mid-par