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The new book features protagonists pursuing fresh starts, attempting to leave behind addictions or harmful partnerships, only to see hope turn into violence. Kraus frequently uses the phrase "clean slate", transforming it into intentionally weary through recurring use. Examples include "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They decided to make a fresh start" appear throughout the narrative. Meanwhile, she seems to be making her own fresh start, as this appears a novel form of writing – observational, genuinely novelistic. Yet it reveals itself to be laden with the familiar conflicts and styles as earlier books.

From Unplanned Author to Iconic Work

Kraus began as an visual artist who became a writer almost accidentally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, structured as letters to an unreceptive lover, transforming confessional female writing from abjection into defiance. She kept producing books, but the next trio of engaging and challenging novels lacked the shock and immediacy that the epistolary style imparted to the tone of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her position as a maverick maker who had evolved into a major property owner, so there was much discussion on property transactions. It is logical that she currently desires to experiment with different types of content, directing her gaze to external narratives, at a period in which she states that current political era makes confessional writing redundant.

Multiple Generations, Collective Unavoidable Background

The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, covering three generations – each trapped by their pasts. There is the tale of Emma and Jasper, based on her own mother and father, relocating from the New York borough to a pastoral setting. Additionally the account of Kraus, in the guise of Catt Greene, grappling with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her addict husband a man named Paul. The third thread involves the story of the murder of one troubled youth by another in a community largely deserted by liberal ideals only a brief drive from the protagonist's home in a remote part of Minnesota.

From my perspective as a reader fond of honed writing of the type Kraus often avoids, I was captivated by the narrative style of the initial segment.

Being a reader who favors crafted language of the variety that the author usually avoids, I was seduced by the literary tone of the initial part. It possesses a novel degree of detail that accommodates minutiae, like the bucket that the young Catt frees from the ice at the start of the story, aided by her cherished parent. "Look, an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a nice toy", he answers, "the elliptical meanings of words tumbling in their mouths like hard candy". The author narrates the tale of Emma with curiosity and intimacy. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not precisely her dream."

Disappointment and Disjunction

I was fated to feel let down when I hoped this fresh tone could continue through the novel. Kraus notes here that she resents the pleasure readers like me have taken from I Love Dick; she's committed to fragmentation, to the messy artistic approach she shares with her inspiration author Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her earlier works returns in the middle section. Catt Greene is working on refurbishing multiple decrepit residences in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while shuttling between the Midwest and the West Coast, unable to aid Paul manage his alcohol use. She feels helpless as her spouse transitions between low-resource employment as an addiction therapist in a world driven by the rage and anxiety that underpins a political win. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt being cancelled on Twitter, her occupation changed from "writer" to "property owner" on Wikipedia. Kraus still seems to care a little too much about this. In a moment she states that she's investigating the murder so that before exiting the region, "she may grasp something about an the nation that her Twitter detractors would fail to comprehend, would overlook entirely".

The Homicide Account

Then we reach to the homicide in question – and the eponymous day spent by the murdered individual with the perpetrator and his companions. Kraus has excellent raw material, and details moment by moment what occurred as Brandon came to see Brittney after meeting her on an app where she sold sex pictures. He sought a sexual encounter but appears congenially to have passed the day alongside her friends, wandering about having his vehicle repaired and paying for snacks and drugs, before being shot by Brittney's boyfriend a man named Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has often been institutionalized for fits of anger.

Preoccupation and Open Ends

Catt gets obsessed by the narrative, and I was intrigued by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards responsible documentation and reckless transgression tussle in this section. However, I would have preferred her to go further into her own obsessions here. The compelling persona is Brittney, who comes alive partly through the protagonist's connection to her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman derailing in a struggling, neglected community. The author informs us that Catt converses with Brittney in detention, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. This entire part feels strangely incomplete, to the degree that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par