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The new book centers on protagonists chasing after new beginnings, trying to break free from addictions or toxic relationships, only to find hope curdling into conflict. The author repeatedly invokes the phrase "clean slate", rendering it willfully cynical through constant reiteration. Sentences like "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They chose to begin anew" recur in the narrative. Meanwhile, Kraus herself seems to be making her individual reinvention, since this seems a new kind of book – documentarian, authentically narrative. But then it proves to be filled with the same dilemmas and styles as earlier books.

From Chance Novelist to Iconic Work

Kraus was originally an creative who entered the literary world somewhat by chance with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, which was composed of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, converting personal female narrative from abjection into assassination. She persisted as a writer, but the next trio of fascinating and rebarbative novels lacked the impact and rawness that the epistolary style infused into the voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her role as a maverick maker who had evolved into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was much discussion on housing investments. It follows that she now wants to try out new kinds of material, turning outward to external narratives, at a period in which she states that current political era renders personal narrative unnecessary.

Several Eras, Collective Unavoidable Background

The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, spanning three generations – none able to break free from their pasts. The book includes the story of a couple named Emma and Jasper, versions of the author's parents, relocating from the New York borough to the Connecticut countryside. Then there is the narrative of the author, in the character of a figure named Catt Greene, grappling with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her partner struggling with addiction Paul. And there is the narrative of a homicide of one troubled youth by another in a locality largely deserted by forward-thinking policies only 80 miles from the protagonist's home in a remote part of Minnesota.

As a reader fond of refined literature of the sort the author herself tends to eschew, I was enchanted by the novelistic voice of the opening part.

As someone who reads drawn to crafted language of the style that Kraus tends to eschew, I was seduced by the storytelling approach of the opening segment. It possesses a new quality of attentiveness that allows space for small details, like the pail that the protagonist as a child frees from the ice at the opening of the book, helped by her adored dad. "Look, an ice toy!" she declares; "a nice toy", he replies, "the elliptical meanings of words tumbling in their mouths like sweet treats". The author narrates Emma's story with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not precisely her dream."

Disappointment and Disjunction

I was destined to be disappointed when I expected this new voice could continue through the novel. Kraus says here that she resents the enjoyment audiences such as myself have gotten from I Love Dick; she's committed to disruption, to the unpolished style she has in common with her idol author Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her earlier works reasserts itself in the second segment. Catt Greene is attempting to do up 36 run-down apartments in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while shuttling between the Midwest and the West Coast, unable to aid Paul curb his addiction. She feels helpless as Paul cycles through underfunded jobs as an addiction therapist in a world driven by the anger and fear that underpins an electoral success. There are several pages about Catt being cancelled on Twitter, her occupation changed from "writer" to "property owner" on the online encyclopedia. She still gives the impression to invest excessive emotion about this. In a moment she states that she's investigating the murder so that before departing the state, "she might be able to learn something about an the nation that her social media opponents would be unable to grasp, would not even perceive".

The Homicide Account

So then we come to the murder itself – and the referenced day experienced by the victim with the killer and his friends. The author possesses compelling foundational content, and details moment by moment what transpired when a man named Brandon came to see Brittney after meeting her on an app where she offered adult photos. He anticipated intimacy but seems affably to have spent the day with her companions, wandering about having his vehicle repaired and funding treats and narcotics, before being murdered by her romantic interest Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has often been institutionalized for aggressive outbursts.

Preoccupation and Open Ends

Catt develops an obsession by the narrative, and I was fascinated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards responsible documentation and audacious rule-breaking wrestle in this part. But I'd have liked her to explore more thoroughly her individual preoccupations here. The most interesting character is the character Brittney, who comes alive in part due to the protagonist's connection to her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual derailing in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus notes that Catt converses with Brittney in detention, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The whole section feels oddly unfinished, to the point that her narrative ends almost mid-par