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This latest work features characters seeking clean slates, attempting to leave behind substance abuse or abusive marriages, only to find hope curdling into conflict. Kraus frequently uses the phrase "clean slate", making it intentionally weary through its repetitions. Sentences like "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They chose to begin anew" appear throughout the story. Meanwhile, she is embarking on her personal new beginning, because this seems a new kind of book – observational, truly literary. Yet it reveals itself to be laden with the same dilemmas and approaches as earlier books.

From Unplanned Author to Iconic Work

The writer started out as an visual artist who entered the literary world unintentionally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, which was composed of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, elevating personal female narrative from self-debasement into assassination. She kept producing books, but the following three engaging and challenging novels missed the shock and immediacy that the letter form brought to the tone of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her position as a nonconformist creator who had become a major property owner, so there was much discussion on property transactions. It makes sense that she presently aims to try out fresh narrative sources, directing her gaze to the experiences of others, at a moment when she states that Trumpian politics makes confessional writing unnecessary.

Three Generations, One Unescapable Past

The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, spanning multiple eras – each trapped by their pasts. The book includes the narrative about Emma and Jasper, based on her own mother and father, moving from the Bronx to the Connecticut countryside. Additionally the story of Kraus herself, in the persona of protagonist Catt Greene, grappling with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her addict husband a man named Paul. And there is the story of the murder of one troubled youth by another in a locality mostly forsaken by liberal ideals only a short distance from Catt's rural residence in rural Minnesota.

From my perspective as a reader attracted to polished prose of the kind Kraus tends to eschew, I was enchanted by the novelistic voice of the first section.

As someone who reads who appreciates honed writing of the style that Kraus tends to eschew, I was captivated by the storytelling approach of the initial part. There is a novel degree of detail that accommodates minutiae, like the container that the youthful Catt frees from the ice at the beginning of the narrative, helped by her cherished parent. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she says; "a great plaything", he replies, "the nuanced interpretations of terms circulating in their speech 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."

Letdown and Fragmentation

I was destined to be disappointed when I hoped this new voice could continue through the novel. Kraus notes here that she dislikes the enjoyment those who appreciate polished prose have taken from I Love Dick; she's committed to disruption, to the untidy aesthetics she echoes from her hero author Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her past books reasserts itself in the middle section. Catt Greene is working on refurbishing multiple decrepit residences in the city's most challenging districts while moving between two different states, failing to help her husband manage his alcohol use. She is overwhelmed as Paul transitions between underfunded jobs as an substance abuse counselor in a world fueled by the anger and fear that underpins a political win. A significant portion discusses about Catt's social media ostracism on Twitter, her listed profession modified from "novelist" to "real estate holder" on a reference site. Kraus still seems to invest excessive emotion about this. In a moment she remarks that she's researching the homicide so that before departing the state, "she could potentially understand something about an the nation that her social media opponents would not understand, would overlook entirely".

The Killing Story

Then we reach to the actual killing – and the referenced day spent by the deceased with the killer and his associates. Kraus has compelling foundational content, and reconstructs step by step what transpired when a man named Brandon came to see Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she sold sex pictures. He anticipated intimacy but seems affably to have spent the day alongside her friends, wandering about fixing his automobile and funding treats and narcotics, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has often been institutionalized for fits of anger.

Preoccupation and Open Ends

The protagonist becomes fixated by the account, and I found myself captivated by the way that her twin drives towards accurate chronicling and reckless transgression clash in this segment. However, I would have preferred her to explore more thoroughly her personal fixations here. The standout figure is the character Brittney, who gains dimension partially because of Catt seeing herself in her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman spiraling out of control in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus tells us that Catt converses with Brittney in prison, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The whole section feels strangely incomplete, to the degree that her narrative ends almost mid-par