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The new book features individuals seeking clean slates, struggling to escape substance abuse or abusive marriages, only to see hope turn into conflict. Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "clean slate", transforming it into willfully cynical through its repetitions. Sentences like "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They decided to make a fresh start" appear throughout the narrative. And yet, she is embarking on her individual reinvention, as this presents as a novel form of writing – documentarian, authentically narrative. Yet it turns out to be filled with the recurring issues and aesthetics as her previous works.

From Accidental Writer to Cult Classic

Kraus began as an visual artist who transitioned to writing somewhat by chance with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, made up of letters to an unreceptive lover, elevating personal female narrative from humiliation into defiance. She continued writing, but the next trio of fascinating and rebarbative novels did not possess the impact and rawness that the correspondence format brought to the voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her role as a maverick maker who had become a major property owner, so there was significant attention on property transactions. It makes sense that she currently desires to try out different types of content, turning outward to the experiences of others, at a period in which she asserts that contemporary political climate renders personal narrative obsolete.

Multiple Generations, Shared Inescapable History

The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, covering three generations – each trapped by their histories. The book includes the story of a couple named Emma and Jasper, representations of the author's parents, moving from the New York borough to rural Connecticut. Additionally the narrative of the author, in the character of a figure named Catt Greene, reckoning with the belated success of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her partner struggling with addiction Paul. The third thread involves the story of the murder of one directionless individual by another in a community mostly forsaken by liberal ideals only a brief drive from Catt's rural residence in the Minnesota countryside.

For this reader drawn to honed writing of the type the author herself often avoids, I was enchanted by the novelistic voice of the opening part.

As someone who reads who favors precise prose of the style that Kraus tends to eschew, I was captivated by the storytelling approach of the opening segment. There is a new quality of attentiveness that makes room for minutiae, like the pail that the youthful Catt dislodges from ice at the opening of the book, helped by her adored dad. "Look, an ice toy!" she declares; "a lovely toy", he answers, "the elliptical meanings of words circulating in their speech like hard candy". Kraus writes Emma's story with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not hers, exactly."

Disappointment and Disjunction

I was destined to be disappointed when I hoped this fresh tone could persist to the end. The author states here that she is annoyed by the satisfaction those who appreciate polished prose have derived from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to fragmentation, to the unpolished style she echoes from her inspiration writer Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her previous novels comes back in the middle section. The protagonist is attempting to do up three dozen dilapidated units in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while moving between the Midwest and the West Coast, unable to aid her husband control his drinking. She is overwhelmed as Paul transitions between poorly supported positions as an addiction therapist in a society driven by the hostility and dread that drives Trump's victory. There are several pages about Catt being cancelled on social media, her listed profession modified from "author" to "property owner" on Wikipedia. The author still appears to be overly concerned about this. In a moment she states that she's researching the homicide so that before exiting the region, "she may grasp something about an America that her social media opponents would fail to comprehend, would not even perceive".

The Murder Narrative

So then we come to the actual killing – and the titular day experienced by the victim with the murderer and his companions. Kraus utilizes great source material, and details moment by moment what transpired when a man named Brandon came to visit Brittney after meeting her on an app where she offered adult photos. He anticipated intimacy but seems affably to have spent the day alongside her friends, loitering fixing his automobile and paying for snacks and drugs, before being shot by Brittney's partner Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has often been institutionalized for aggressive outbursts.

Obsession and Unfinished Business

The protagonist becomes fixated by the account, and I was intrigued by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards ethical reporting and daring boundary-pushing clash in this segment. Yet I wished her to explore more thoroughly her individual preoccupations here. The standout figure is Brittney herself, who gains dimension in part due to Catt's identification with her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual derailing in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus notes that Catt speaks to Brittney in detention, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The whole section feels strangely incomplete, to the point that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par