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This latest work is populated with characters seeking new beginnings, struggling to escape addictions or harmful partnerships, only to see hope turn into conflict. The author frequently uses the phrase "clean slate", rendering it deliberately jaded through its repetitions. Phrases such as "He aimed to start over" and "They opted for a clean break" recur in the story. At the same time, she seems to be making her individual reinvention, as this seems a different type of work – observational, genuinely novelistic. However it proves to be laden with the familiar conflicts and aesthetics as her previous works.

From Unplanned Author to Cult Classic

Kraus was originally an visual artist who entered the literary world unintentionally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, which was composed of missives to a distant beloved, converting intimate women's literature from abjection into defiance. She persisted as a writer, but the next trio of compelling and abrasive novels lacked the power and directness that the epistolary style brought to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her role as a nonconformist creator who had evolved into a major property owner, so there was considerable focus on property transactions. It follows that she presently aims to explore fresh narrative sources, directing her gaze to external narratives, at a time when she states that current political era renders personal narrative redundant.

Multiple Generations, One Unescapable Past

The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, covering three generations – all unable to escape their backgrounds. We encounter the tale of characters Emma and Jasper, versions of her own mother and father, transitioning from the urban environment to a pastoral setting. Then there is the story of Kraus herself, in the character of protagonist Catt Greene, grappling with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her addict husband Paul. The third thread involves the story of the murder of one directionless individual by another in a town mostly forsaken by progressive politics only a short distance from Catt's rural residence in rural Minnesota.

For this reader drawn to polished prose of the sort Kraus often avoids, I was captivated by the literary tone of the initial segment.

As someone who reads drawn to honed writing of the kind that Kraus tends to eschew, I was captivated by the storytelling approach of the first section. It possesses a novel degree of detail that accommodates minutiae, like the pail that the protagonist as a child frees from the ice at the beginning of the narrative, aided by her beloved father. "Look, an ice toy!" she declares; "a lovely toy", he answers, "the nuanced interpretations of terms rolling around in their mouths like sweet treats". The author narrates Emma's story with inquiry and familiarity. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not hers, exactly."

Letdown and Fragmentation

I was fated to feel let down when I hoped this different style could continue through the novel. Kraus notes here that she is annoyed by the pleasure those who appreciate polished prose have gotten from I Love Dick; she's committed to disjunction, to the unpolished style she has in common with her hero writer Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her previous novels comes back in the second segment. Catt Greene is attempting to do up three dozen dilapidated units in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while moving between two different states, failing to help Paul control his drinking. She is overwhelmed as Paul moves between poorly supported positions as an substance abuse counselor in a world fueled by the anger and fear that powers an electoral success. There are several pages about Catt being cancelled on Twitter, her occupation changed from "novelist" to "real estate holder" on a reference site. She still gives the impression to be overly concerned about this. In a moment she states that she's researching the homicide so that before leaving Minnesota, "she could potentially understand something about an America that her social media opponents would be unable to grasp, would not even perceive".

The Murder Narrative

So then we come to the murder itself – and the titular day spent by the deceased with the murderer and his associates. Kraus has excellent raw material, and knows hour by hour what transpired when the victim Brandon came to visit Brittney after connecting via an application where she marketed explicit images. He was hoping for sex but seems affably to have spent the day alongside her friends, wandering about having his vehicle repaired and covering the cost of food and substances, before being murdered by Brittney's boyfriend a man named Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has often been institutionalized for violent rage.

Fascination and Incompletion

The protagonist becomes fixated by the story, and I was fascinated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards ethical reporting and daring boundary-pushing tussle in this section. Yet I wished her to delve deeper into her personal fixations here. The most interesting character is Brittney herself, who becomes vivid partially because of the protagonist's connection to her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman going off the rails in a difficult, overlooked locality. The author informs us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in jail, 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