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The new book features protagonists pursuing new beginnings, trying to break free from drugs or abusive marriages, only to see hope turn into violence. Kraus frequently uses the phrase "clean slate", rendering it deliberately jaded through its repetitions. Examples include "He could make a fresh start" and "They opted for a clean break" are scattered across the narrative. And yet, Kraus herself is embarking on her personal new beginning, as this presents as a new kind of book – observational, genuinely novelistic. However it reveals itself to be packed with the recurring issues and aesthetics as past novels.

From Chance Novelist to Cult Classic

Kraus began as an visual artist who became a writer unintentionally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, structured as letters to an unreceptive lover, converting personal female narrative from self-debasement into assassination. She continued writing, but the three subsequent engaging and challenging novels missed the power and directness that the epistolary style brought to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her identity as a maverick maker who had evolved into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was much discussion on real estate deals. It follows that she presently aims to experiment with fresh narrative sources, directing her gaze to the experiences of others, at a time when she claims that Trumpian politics makes confessional writing obsolete.

Multiple Generations, Collective Unavoidable Background

The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, covering multiple eras – all unable to escape their pasts. We encounter the narrative about characters Emma and Jasper, representations of the author's parents, transitioning from the New York borough to the Connecticut countryside. Then there is the story of Kraus herself, in the persona of protagonist Catt Greene, reckoning with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her partner struggling with addiction her husband Paul. And there is the story of the murder of one troubled youth by another in a community mostly forsaken by forward-thinking policies only a short distance from Catt's rural residence in the Minnesota countryside.

From my perspective as a reader drawn to honed writing of the type Kraus herself typically rejects, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the opening part.

As someone who reads who appreciates honed writing of the kind that Kraus herself often disregards, I was won over by the storytelling approach of the initial part. It possesses a new quality of attentiveness that allows space for small details, like the pail that the youthful Catt frees from the ice at the start of the story, assisted by her beloved father. "I found an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a great plaything", he replies, "the nuanced interpretations of terms tumbling in their mouths like sweet treats". She tells Emma's narrative with curiosity and intimacy. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not entirely her own."

Disappointment and Disjunction

I was destined to be disappointed when I expected this new voice could continue through the novel. The author states here that she dislikes the enjoyment those who appreciate polished prose have gotten from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disruption, to the untidy aesthetics she has in common with her hero author Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her previous novels returns in the central part. Catt is trying to renovate three dozen dilapidated units in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while traveling between two different states, failing to help Paul manage his alcohol use. She is overwhelmed as her spouse cycles through underfunded jobs as an recovery specialist in a society fueled by the hostility and dread that underpins a political win. There are several pages about the protagonist facing cancellation on social media, her professional designation altered from "author" to "property owner" on the online encyclopedia. Kraus still seems to invest excessive emotion about this. At one point she remarks that she's investigating the murder so that before departing the state, "she could potentially understand something about an the United States that her online critics would be unable to grasp, would not even see".

The Killing Story

Then we reach to the murder itself – and the referenced day spent by the victim with the murderer and his friends. Kraus has compelling foundational content, and details moment by moment what transpired when a man named Brandon came to visit Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she marketed explicit images. He anticipated intimacy but seems affably to have spent the day in the company of her associates, wandering about getting his car mended and covering the cost of food and substances, before being shot by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has repeatedly received inpatient care for fits of anger.

Fascination and Incompletion

The protagonist becomes fixated by the account, and I was fascinated by the way that her twin drives towards responsible documentation and daring boundary-pushing clash in this segment. Yet I wished her to explore more thoroughly her personal fixations here. The most interesting character is Brittney herself, who gains dimension partly through Catt seeing herself in her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual spiraling out of control in a difficult, overlooked locality. The author informs us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in prison, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. This entire part feels oddly unfinished, to the point that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par