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The new book is populated with individuals pursuing fresh starts, attempting to leave behind drugs or abusive marriages, only to see hope turn into aggression. Kraus frequently uses the phrase "clean slate", rendering it willfully cynical through recurring use. Examples include "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They decided to make a fresh start" are scattered across the narrative. And yet, Kraus herself is embarking on her personal new beginning, as this presents as a novel form of writing – observational, truly literary. Yet it turns out to be filled with the same dilemmas and styles as past novels.

From Unplanned Author to Cult Classic

The writer began as an artist who entered the literary world somewhat by chance with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, structured as missives to a distant beloved, converting intimate women's literature from humiliation into rebellion. She continued writing, but the following three engaging and challenging novels did not possess the shock and immediacy that the epistolary style brought to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her position as a maverick maker who had become a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was significant attention on property transactions. It is logical that she now wants to try out fresh narrative sources, looking outwards to other people's stories, at a moment when she states that Trumpian politics renders personal narrative unnecessary.

Multiple Generations, One Unescapable Past

The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, encompassing three generations – all unable to escape their backgrounds. There is the tale of characters Emma and Jasper, versions of Kraus's parents, transitioning from the urban environment to rural Connecticut. Then there is the account of Kraus, in the guise of Catt Greene, grappling with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction a man named Paul. And there is the story of the murder of one troubled youth by another in a town mostly forsaken by forward-thinking policies only a brief drive from Catt's cottage in the Minnesota countryside.

As a reader attracted to honed writing of the sort the author herself often avoids, I was captivated by the narrative style of the opening part.

As someone who reads who favors crafted language of the kind that Kraus usually avoids, I was captivated by the literary tone of the initial part. There is a novel degree of detail that accommodates trivial aspects, like the pail that the young Catt pries out of frozen water at the start of the story, helped by her cherished parent. "I found an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a nice toy", he answers, "the nuanced interpretations of terms tumbling in their mouths like piece candy". The author narrates Emma's narrative with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not precisely her dream."

Letdown and Fragmentation

I was destined to be disappointed when I hoped this new voice could continue through the novel. The author states here that she is annoyed by the pleasure readers like me have gotten from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disjunction, to the messy artistic approach she has in common with her hero Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her past books returns in the central part. Catt Greene is trying to renovate three dozen dilapidated units in the city's most challenging districts while traveling between two different states, unsuccessful in assisting her husband manage his alcohol use. She is overwhelmed as Paul moves between low-resource employment as an recovery specialist in a society fueled by the hostility and dread that drives a political win. There are several pages about the protagonist facing cancellation on a platform, her listed profession modified from "writer" to "landlord" on a reference site. Kraus still seems to invest excessive emotion about this. In a moment she says that she's researching the homicide so that before leaving Minnesota, "she might be able to learn something about an the nation that her social media opponents would not understand, would not even see".

The Homicide Account

So then we come to the homicide in question – and the titular day experienced by the victim with the murderer and his companions. The author possesses great source material, and details moment by moment what occurred as a man named Brandon came to visit Brittney after connecting via an application where she offered adult photos. He was hoping for sex but appears congenially to have passed the day in the company of her associates, mooching around getting his car mended and covering the cost of food and substances, before being shot by Brittney's partner a man named Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has repeatedly received inpatient care for violent rage.

Preoccupation and Open Ends

Catt gets obsessed by the account, and I was intrigued by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards ethical reporting and reckless transgression clash in this segment. Yet I wished her to delve deeper into her individual preoccupations here. The most interesting character is the character Brittney, who gains dimension partly through Catt's identification with her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual spiraling out of control in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus tells us that Catt converses with Brittney in jail, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The complete segment feels strangely incomplete, to the point that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par