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The new book features characters chasing after clean slates, trying to break free from substance abuse or abusive marriages, only to see hope turn into conflict. Kraus often employs the phrase "clean slate", making it willfully cynical through its repetitions. Phrases such as "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They chose to begin anew" recur in the text. Meanwhile, the author herself appears to be undertaking her personal new beginning, since this presents as a new kind of book – fact-based, authentically narrative. Yet it turns out to be filled with the familiar conflicts and styles as her previous works.

From Accidental Writer to Renowned Book

Kraus began as an creative who transitioned to writing somewhat by chance with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, structured as epistles to an unresponsive love interest, transforming personal female narrative from humiliation into defiance. She continued writing, but the next trio of fascinating and rebarbative novels missed the impact and rawness that the epistolary style brought to the tone of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her role as a maverick maker who had turned into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was considerable focus on housing investments. It follows that she currently desires to experiment with different types of content, turning outward to external narratives, at a time when she claims that current political era renders personal narrative obsolete.

Three Generations, One Unescapable Past

The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, spanning several time periods – none able to break free from their histories. There is the tale of a couple named Emma and Jasper, representations of the author's parents, relocating from the Bronx to the Connecticut countryside. Additionally the account of Kraus, in the persona of protagonist Catt Greene, confronting the late recognition of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her partner struggling with addiction a man named Paul. The third thread involves the story of the murder of one troubled youth by another in a community long abandoned by progressive politics only a brief drive from Catt's rural residence in the Minnesota countryside.

For this reader drawn to honed writing of the type Kraus often avoids, I was seduced by the narrative style of the initial segment.

Being a reader drawn to crafted language of the kind that Kraus herself usually avoids, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the first section. It possesses a fresh level of observation that accommodates minutiae, like the bucket that the protagonist as a child dislodges from ice at the beginning of the narrative, assisted by her beloved father. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she says; "a lovely toy", he answers, "the elliptical meanings of words circulating in their speech like sweet treats". She tells Emma's narrative with interest and closeness. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not precisely her dream."

Disappointment and Disjunction

I was fated to feel let down when I wished this new voice could last out the book. The author states here that she is annoyed by the enjoyment audiences such as myself have derived from I Love Dick; she's committed to disruption, to the unpolished style she shares with her hero author Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her earlier works returns in the middle section. Catt Greene is working on refurbishing multiple decrepit residences in the city's most challenging districts while moving between Minnesota and LA, unsuccessful in assisting Paul manage his alcohol use. She is overwhelmed as Paul moves between poorly supported positions as an substance abuse counselor in a environment propelled by the rage and anxiety that powers an electoral success. There are several pages about the protagonist facing cancellation on Twitter, her occupation changed from "author" to "property owner" on the online encyclopedia. The author still appears to care a little too much about this. On one occasion she remarks that she's looking into the killing so that before departing the state, "she may grasp something about an the nation that her online critics would not understand, would not even perceive".

The Killing Story

So then we come to the murder itself – and the titular day passed by the deceased with the killer and his friends. Kraus utilizes compelling foundational content, and knows hour by hour what transpired when a man named Brandon came to meet Brittney after connecting via an application where she sold sex pictures. He anticipated intimacy but seems amiably to have occupied the day alongside her friends, wandering about getting his car mended and covering the cost of food and substances, before being killed by gunfire by her romantic interest Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has often been institutionalized for violent rage.

Preoccupation and Open Ends

Catt gets obsessed by the narrative, and I was intrigued by the way that her twin drives towards responsible documentation and reckless transgression wrestle in this part. However, I would have preferred her to go further into her own obsessions here. The standout figure is the character Brittney, who becomes vivid partly through Catt's identification with her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman derailing in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus tells us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in jail, but she fails to enact these dialogues. This entire part feels strangely incomplete, to the point that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par