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This latest work features individuals seeking fresh starts, trying to break free from substance abuse or abusive marriages, only to see hope turn into conflict. The author frequently uses the phrase "clean slate", rendering it willfully cynical through its repetitions. Sentences like "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They opted for a clean break" recur in the story. At the same time, Kraus herself seems to be making her own fresh start, because this appears a new kind of book – documentarian, truly literary. Yet it proves to be packed with the recurring issues and styles as her previous works.

From Chance Novelist to Cult Classic

The writer began as an artist who entered the literary world unintentionally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, structured as epistles to an unresponsive love interest, elevating personal female narrative from abjection into defiance. She kept producing books, but the next trio of compelling and abrasive novels missed the impact and rawness that the letter form brought to the voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her position as a nonconformist creator who had become a major property owner, so there was considerable focus on housing investments. It makes sense that she currently desires to try out fresh narrative sources, looking outwards to external narratives, at a moment when she claims that Trumpian politics renders personal narrative obsolete.

Three Generations, Collective Unavoidable Background

The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, covering multiple eras – none able to break free from their histories. There is the story of Emma and Jasper, versions of Kraus's parents, transitioning from the Bronx to a pastoral setting. Additionally the account of Kraus, in the guise of a figure named Catt Greene, grappling with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her partner struggling with addiction a man named Paul. And there is the story of the murder of one directionless individual by another in a town long abandoned by forward-thinking policies only a brief drive from the protagonist's home in a remote part of Minnesota.

As a reader fond of honed writing of the type Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was seduced by the narrative style of the first section.

Being a reader drawn to crafted language of the variety that the author often disregards, I was won over by the literary tone of the opening segment. It exhibits a new quality of attentiveness that makes room for minutiae, like the bucket that the young Catt dislodges from ice at the beginning of the narrative, aided by her cherished parent. "I found an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a lovely toy", he replies, "the elliptical meanings of words rolling around in their mouths like sweet treats". Kraus writes the tale of Emma with inquiry and familiarity. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not precisely her dream."

Frustration and Disruption

I was bound to become frustrated when I wished this new voice could continue through the novel. The author states here that she resents the satisfaction those who appreciate polished prose have taken from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disruption, to the messy artistic approach she has in common with her idol writer Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her past books reasserts itself in the central part. The protagonist is trying to renovate three dozen dilapidated units in the city's most challenging districts while moving between the Midwest and the West Coast, unsuccessful in assisting Paul control his drinking. She feels helpless as her spouse transitions between underfunded jobs as an addiction therapist in a world propelled by the anger and fear that underpins an electoral success. There are several pages about Catt's social media ostracism on Twitter, her occupation changed from "novelist" to "real estate holder" on a reference site. The author still appears to be overly concerned about this. In a moment she states that she's investigating the murder so that before exiting the region, "she may grasp something about an the nation that her Twitter detractors would be unable to grasp, would not even perceive".

The Homicide Account

So then we come to the homicide in question – and the referenced day spent by the deceased with the murderer and his associates. Kraus has excellent raw material, and details moment by moment what occurred as Brandon came to meet Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she offered adult photos. He was hoping for sex but seems amiably to have occupied the day in the company of her associates, mooching around getting his car mended and funding treats and narcotics, before being shot by Brittney's partner Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has often been institutionalized for aggressive outbursts.

Preoccupation and Open Ends

The protagonist becomes fixated by the account, and I was intrigued by the way that her twin drives towards accurate chronicling and audacious rule-breaking wrestle in this part. Yet I wished her to delve deeper into her personal fixations here. The standout figure is Brittney herself, who gains dimension in part due to Catt's identification with her – another bright, bullied girl going off the rails in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus notes that Catt converses with Brittney in prison, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The complete segment feels strangely incomplete, to the extent that her narrative ends almost mid-par