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This latest work centers on characters pursuing clean slates, struggling to escape substance abuse or abusive marriages, only to see hope turn into conflict. The author repeatedly invokes the phrase "clean slate", making it intentionally weary 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 is embarking on her personal new beginning, as this presents as a novel form of writing – fact-based, truly literary. However it reveals itself to be filled with the same dilemmas and styles as her previous works.

From Unplanned Author to Cult Classic

Kraus began as an artist who entered the literary world unintentionally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, which was composed of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, transforming confessional female writing from abjection into rebellion. She kept producing books, but the three subsequent engaging and challenging novels did not possess the shock and immediacy that the correspondence format brought to the tone of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her role as a maverick maker who had evolved into a major property owner, so there was much discussion on housing investments. It is logical that she now wants to try out different types of content, turning outward to the experiences of others, at a time when she claims that Trumpian politics renders personal narrative unnecessary.

Multiple Generations, Shared Inescapable History

The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, spanning multiple eras – all unable to escape their histories. The book includes the narrative about a couple named Emma and Jasper, versions of Kraus's parents, relocating from the urban environment to a pastoral setting. Additionally the narrative of the author, in the character of protagonist Catt Greene, reckoning with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her partner struggling with addiction a man named Paul. And there is the story of the murder of one directionless individual by another in a town long abandoned by progressive politics only a short distance from Catt's cottage in a remote part of Minnesota.

From my perspective as a reader attracted to polished prose of the type Kraus often avoids, I was seduced by the literary tone of the first section.

As someone who reads who favors precise prose of the kind that the author usually avoids, I was seduced by the literary tone of the first section. It possesses a new quality of attentiveness that accommodates small details, like the bucket that the protagonist as a child frees from the ice at the opening of the book, helped by her beloved father. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she says; "a great plaything", he answers, "the ambiguous meanings of language tumbling in their mouths like sweet treats". Kraus writes Emma's story with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not entirely her own."

Frustration and Disruption

I was fated to feel let down when I expected this new voice could continue through the novel. Kraus notes here that she resents the pleasure readers like me have taken from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disruption, to the untidy aesthetics she shares with her idol author Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her past books returns in the central part. Catt is trying to renovate 36 run-down apartments in the city's most challenging districts while moving between two different states, unsuccessful in assisting Paul manage his alcohol use. She feels helpless as her spouse moves between poorly supported positions as an substance abuse counselor in a society fueled by the anger and fear that powers Trump's victory. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt's social media ostracism on social media, her occupation changed from "author" to "real estate holder" on a reference site. The author still appears to invest excessive emotion about this. At one point she states that she's looking into the killing so that before departing the state, "she could potentially understand something about an the United States that her Twitter detractors would be unable to grasp, would not even perceive".

The Killing Story

Thus we arrive to the homicide in question – and the referenced day experienced by the deceased with the perpetrator and his friends. The author possesses great source material, and details moment by moment what transpired when the victim Brandon came to meet Brittney after connecting via an application where she offered adult photos. He was hoping for sex but seems affably to have spent the day in the company of her associates, loitering getting his car mended and funding treats and narcotics, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's partner Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has often been institutionalized for fits of anger.

Preoccupation and Open Ends

The protagonist becomes fixated by the account, and I was intrigued by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards accurate chronicling and audacious rule-breaking wrestle in this part. But I'd have liked her to explore more thoroughly her own obsessions here. The most interesting character is Brittney, who becomes vivid partly through the protagonist's connection to her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman spiraling out of control in a troubled, forgotten town. The author informs us that Catt converses with Brittney in prison, but she fails to enact these dialogues. This entire part feels oddly unfinished, to the degree that her narrative ends almost mid-par