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The new book centers on protagonists chasing after fresh starts, trying to break free from drugs or abusive marriages, only to witness hope devolve into conflict. The author often employs the phrase "clean slate", rendering it willfully cynical through recurring use. Examples include "He could make a fresh start" and "They chose to begin anew" are scattered across the story. And yet, the author herself is embarking on her personal new beginning, as this appears a new kind of book – observational, genuinely novelistic. However it turns out to be filled with the recurring issues and aesthetics as earlier books.

From Accidental Writer to Iconic Work

The writer was originally an visual artist who transitioned to writing almost accidentally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, made up of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, converting intimate women's literature from humiliation into assassination. She persisted as a writer, but the three subsequent engaging and challenging novels did not possess the power and directness that the correspondence format infused into the tone of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her position as a nonconformist creator who had become a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was significant attention on real estate deals. It follows that she currently desires to experiment with different types of content, looking outwards to the experiences of others, at a period in which she states that contemporary political climate makes confessional writing obsolete.

Multiple Generations, One Unescapable Past

The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, encompassing several time periods – all unable to escape their backgrounds. We encounter the narrative about a couple named Emma and Jasper, versions of the author's parents, relocating from the urban environment to a pastoral setting. There is the story of Kraus herself, in the character of a figure named Catt Greene, grappling with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction her husband Paul. And there is the narrative of a homicide of one lost young man by another in a community largely deserted by progressive politics only 80 miles from Catt's rural residence in the Minnesota countryside.

As a reader drawn to polished prose of the type Kraus typically rejects, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the first section.

As a reader who appreciates precise prose of the kind that Kraus herself usually avoids, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the opening segment. It possesses a novel degree of detail that accommodates minutiae, like the bucket that the protagonist as a child dislodges from ice at the beginning of the narrative, helped by her adored dad. "Look, an ice toy!" she declares; "a lovely toy", he answers, "the nuanced interpretations of terms tumbling in their mouths like sweet treats". She tells Emma's story with interest and closeness. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not precisely her dream."

Frustration and Disruption

I was fated to feel let down when I expected this new voice could last out the book. Kraus notes here that she resents the pleasure those who appreciate polished prose have derived from I Love Dick; she's committed to disjunction, to the messy artistic approach she shares with her idol Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her previous novels reasserts itself in the central part. Catt Greene is working on refurbishing multiple decrepit residences in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while moving between the Midwest and the West Coast, failing to help her husband manage his alcohol use. She is overwhelmed as Paul transitions between underfunded jobs as an recovery specialist in a world fueled by the hostility and dread that drives a political win. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt being cancelled on a platform, her professional designation altered from "novelist" to "property owner" on the online encyclopedia. She still gives the impression to care a little too much about this. On one occasion she states that she's investigating the murder so that before exiting the region, "she could potentially understand something about an America that her online critics would not understand, would not even perceive".

The Murder Narrative

Then we reach to the murder itself – and the referenced day passed by the victim with the murderer and his associates. The author possesses excellent raw material, and details moment by moment what occurred as a man named Brandon came to see Brittney after meeting her on an app where she offered adult photos. He sought a sexual encounter but appears congenially to have passed the day in the company of her associates, wandering about having his vehicle repaired and funding treats and narcotics, before being murdered by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has repeatedly received inpatient care for fits of anger.

Preoccupation and Open Ends

Catt gets obsessed by the story, and I found myself captivated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards ethical reporting and daring boundary-pushing tussle in this section. But I'd have liked her to go further into her individual preoccupations here. The most interesting character is the character Brittney, who becomes vivid in part due to Catt's identification with her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual going off the rails in a troubled, forgotten town. The author informs us that Catt speaks to Brittney in detention, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The complete segment feels curiously unresolved, to the extent that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par