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This latest work centers on individuals seeking clean slates, trying to break free from substance abuse or abusive marriages, only to find hope curdling into conflict. Kraus often employs the phrase "clean slate", transforming it into intentionally weary through recurring use. Phrases such as "He aimed to start over" and "They chose to begin anew" appear throughout the text. At the same time, she is embarking on her individual reinvention, since this appears a different type of work – fact-based, authentically narrative. However it turns out to be laden with the recurring issues and approaches as earlier books.

From Accidental Writer to Iconic Work

Kraus started out as an artist who became a writer unintentionally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, made up of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, converting intimate women's literature from humiliation into rebellion. She kept producing books, but the three subsequent compelling and abrasive novels lacked the power and directness that the correspondence format imparted to the voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her identity as a renegade artist who had evolved into a major property owner, so there was considerable focus on property transactions. It follows that she currently desires to experiment with different types of content, turning outward to other people's stories, at a period in which she asserts that Trumpian politics makes confessional writing redundant.

Multiple Generations, One Unescapable Past

The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, encompassing three generations – none able to break free from their histories. There is the tale of a couple named Emma and Jasper, versions of the author's parents, relocating from the Bronx to a pastoral setting. Then there is the narrative of the author, in the guise of protagonist Catt Greene, reckoning 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 directionless individual by another in a locality largely deserted by progressive politics only a short distance from Catt's rural residence in the Minnesota countryside.

As a reader drawn to honed writing of the type the author herself tends to eschew, I was captivated by the narrative style of the initial segment.

Being a reader who favors honed writing of the style that the author often disregards, I was captivated by the literary tone of the opening segment. It possesses a novel degree of detail that accommodates trivial aspects, like the pail that the protagonist as a child frees from the ice at the start of the story, aided by her adored dad. "Look, an ice toy!" she declares; "a nice toy", he answers, "the ambiguous meanings of language rolling around in their mouths like sweet treats". She tells Emma's story with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not hers, exactly."

Frustration and Disruption

I was fated to feel let down when I hoped this new voice could continue through the novel. The author states here that she resents the pleasure those who appreciate polished prose have taken from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disjunction, to the untidy aesthetics she shares with her inspiration Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her earlier works reasserts itself in the second segment. The protagonist is trying to renovate three dozen dilapidated units in the city's most challenging districts while shuttling between two different states, unsuccessful in assisting her husband control his drinking. She experiences powerlessness as Paul cycles through poorly supported positions as an addiction therapist in a world driven by the anger and fear that powers an electoral success. A significant portion discusses about Catt being cancelled on Twitter, her listed profession modified from "author" to "landlord" on Wikipedia. The author still appears to care a little too much about this. At one point she states that she's researching the homicide so that before exiting the region, "she may grasp something about an America that her online critics would not understand, would overlook entirely".

The Murder Narrative

Thus we arrive to the homicide in question – and the eponymous day spent by the victim with the perpetrator and his companions. Kraus has compelling foundational content, and reconstructs step by step what happened when a man named Brandon came to visit Brittney after connecting via an application where she marketed explicit images. He sought a sexual encounter but seems affably to have spent the day with her companions, mooching around getting his car mended and funding treats and narcotics, before being murdered by her romantic interest Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has repeatedly received inpatient care for aggressive outbursts.

Obsession and Unfinished Business

Catt gets obsessed by the narrative, and I was fascinated by the way that her twin drives towards accurate chronicling and audacious rule-breaking clash in this segment. But I'd have liked her to delve deeper into her individual preoccupations here. The standout figure is Brittney herself, who gains dimension partially because of Catt's identification with her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman 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. This entire part feels curiously unresolved, to the point that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par