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This latest work is populated with protagonists pursuing clean slates, trying to break free from addictions or toxic relationships, only to find hope curdling into conflict. Kraus often employs the phrase "clean slate", transforming it into deliberately jaded through recurring use. Examples include "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They chose to begin anew" recur in the narrative. And yet, the author herself seems to be making her individual reinvention, because this presents as a novel form of writing – documentarian, authentically narrative. Yet it proves to be packed with the recurring issues and aesthetics as past novels.

From Unplanned Author to Iconic Work

Kraus started out as an visual artist who became a writer unintentionally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, made up of letters to an unreceptive lover, converting confessional female writing 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 correspondence format imparted to the voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her role as a maverick maker who had become a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was significant attention on property transactions. It follows that she currently desires to explore fresh narrative sources, directing her gaze to external narratives, at a period in which she claims that Trumpian politics makes confessional writing unnecessary.

Three Generations, Shared Inescapable History

The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, covering three generations – each trapped by their backgrounds. We encounter the story of Emma and Jasper, based on the author's parents, moving from the urban environment to rural Connecticut. Additionally the story of Kraus herself, in the character of protagonist Catt Greene, confronting the belated success of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her substance-dependent spouse Paul. And there is the narrative of a homicide of one directionless individual by another in a community largely deserted by liberal ideals only 80 miles from Catt's cottage in rural Minnesota.

As a reader drawn to honed writing of the kind the author herself typically rejects, I was enchanted by the literary tone of the opening part.

As someone who reads drawn to precise prose of the kind that Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was captivated by the storytelling approach of the initial part. There is a fresh level of observation that makes room for small details, like the pail that the youthful Catt pries out of frozen water at the opening of the book, aided by her beloved father. "I found an ice toy!" she declares; "a great plaything", he responds, "the nuanced interpretations of terms circulating in their speech like hard candy". Kraus writes Emma's narrative with inquiry and familiarity. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not precisely her dream."

Letdown and Fragmentation

I was bound to become frustrated when I hoped this new voice could persist to the end. The author states here that she resents the satisfaction audiences such as myself have gotten from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disjunction, to the unpolished style she shares with her inspiration author Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her past books returns in the middle section. The protagonist is attempting to do up 36 run-down apartments in the city's most challenging districts while moving between Minnesota and LA, unsuccessful in assisting Paul curb his addiction. She feels helpless as Paul transitions between poorly supported positions as an recovery specialist in a environment driven by the anger and fear that underpins an electoral success. A significant portion discusses about Catt being cancelled on social media, her professional designation altered from "author" to "real estate holder" on a reference site. She still gives the impression to invest excessive emotion about this. In a moment she says that she's investigating the murder so that before leaving Minnesota, "she might be able to learn something about an the nation that her Twitter detractors would not understand, would not even perceive".

The Homicide Account

Thus we arrive to the actual killing – and the titular day passed by the murdered individual with the perpetrator and his associates. The author possesses compelling foundational content, and knows hour by hour what transpired when Brandon came to see Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she marketed explicit images. He sought a sexual encounter but seems affably to have spent the day in the company of her associates, wandering about having his vehicle repaired and covering the cost of food and substances, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has often been institutionalized for violent rage.

Preoccupation and Open Ends

Catt develops an obsession by the account, and I was fascinated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards ethical reporting and daring boundary-pushing tussle in this section. However, I would have preferred her to go further into her personal fixations here. The compelling persona is Brittney, who becomes vivid in part due to Catt's identification with her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual going off the rails in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus notes that Catt converses with Brittney in jail, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The complete segment feels curiously unresolved, to the point that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par