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The new book is populated with individuals chasing after clean slates, attempting to leave behind drugs or toxic relationships, only to see hope turn into aggression. The author frequently uses the phrase "clean slate", rendering it deliberately jaded through recurring use. Phrases such as "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They chose to begin anew" appear throughout the narrative. At the same time, Kraus herself appears to be undertaking her own fresh start, since this seems a novel form of writing – observational, genuinely novelistic. But then it reveals itself to be packed with the same dilemmas and aesthetics as her previous works.

From Chance Novelist to Renowned Book

Kraus began as an artist who became a writer almost accidentally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, structured as missives to a distant beloved, elevating confessional female writing from self-debasement into defiance. She kept producing books, but the three subsequent fascinating and rebarbative novels missed the power and directness that the letter form brought to the voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her role as a renegade artist who had become a major property owner, so there was significant attention on real estate deals. It follows that she presently aims to try out different types of content, turning outward to other people's stories, at a period in which she claims that contemporary political climate renders personal narrative unnecessary.

Several Eras, Shared Inescapable History

The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, covering several time periods – each trapped by their backgrounds. The book includes the tale of Emma and Jasper, representations of the author's parents, relocating from the New York borough to a pastoral setting. Then there is the story of Kraus herself, in the guise of a figure named Catt Greene, reckoning with the belated success of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse a man named Paul. The third thread involves the account of a killing of one lost young man by another in a locality long abandoned by liberal ideals only a brief drive from Catt's rural residence in a remote part of Minnesota.

For this reader fond of honed writing of the type the author herself typically rejects, I was captivated by the narrative style of the opening part.

As someone who reads who favors honed writing of the kind that Kraus usually avoids, I was won over by the novelistic voice of the initial part. It exhibits a novel degree of detail that accommodates trivial aspects, like the pail that the young Catt dislodges from ice at the start of the story, helped by her cherished parent. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she says; "a lovely toy", he replies, "the ambiguous meanings of language tumbling in their mouths like piece candy". The author narrates the tale of Emma with inquiry and familiarity. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not entirely her own."

Frustration and Disruption

I was bound to become frustrated when I wished this fresh tone could persist to the end. Kraus notes here that she resents the enjoyment audiences such as myself have gotten from I Love Dick; she's committed to fragmentation, to the untidy aesthetics she has in common with her inspiration author Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her earlier works comes back in the central part. The protagonist is trying to renovate three dozen dilapidated units in the city's most challenging districts while traveling between Minnesota and LA, unsuccessful in assisting Paul curb his addiction. She feels helpless as her spouse transitions between underfunded jobs as an substance abuse counselor in a society fueled by the rage and anxiety that powers an electoral success. There are several pages about Catt's social media ostracism on Twitter, her professional designation altered from "novelist" to "property owner" on a reference site. The author still appears to invest excessive emotion about this. In a moment she states that she's investigating the murder so that before exiting the region, "she could potentially understand something about an the United States that her online critics would be unable to grasp, would not even perceive".

The Murder Narrative

Thus we arrive to the murder itself – and the referenced day experienced by the deceased with the murderer and his friends. Kraus has great source material, and details moment by moment what happened when the victim Brandon came to see Brittney after connecting via an application where she marketed explicit images. He anticipated intimacy but appears congenially to have passed the day in the company of her associates, loitering having his vehicle repaired and paying for snacks and drugs, before being murdered by her romantic interest a man named Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has frequently been hospitalised for fits of anger.

Preoccupation and Open Ends

The protagonist becomes fixated by the account, and I found myself captivated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards ethical reporting and reckless transgression clash in this segment. Yet I wished her to go further into her own obsessions here. The compelling persona is Brittney, who becomes vivid partly through Catt seeing herself in her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman derailing in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus tells us that Catt speaks to Brittney in detention, but she fails to enact these dialogues. This entire part feels curiously unresolved, to the degree that her narrative ends almost mid-par