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This latest work centers on protagonists chasing after clean slates, attempting to leave behind substance abuse or abusive marriages, only to witness hope devolve into aggression. The author often employs the phrase "clean slate", transforming it into deliberately jaded through its repetitions. Phrases such as "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They opted for a clean break" appear throughout the story. At the same time, Kraus herself appears to be undertaking her personal new beginning, because this seems a different type of work – documentarian, genuinely novelistic. But then it reveals itself to be filled with the recurring issues and styles as earlier books.

From Unplanned Author to Renowned Book

Kraus started out as an visual artist who entered the literary world somewhat by chance with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, which was composed of missives to a distant beloved, elevating intimate women's literature from self-debasement into assassination. She kept producing books, but the next trio of engaging and challenging novels did not possess the power and directness that the correspondence format brought to the voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her position as a maverick maker who had turned into a major property owner, so there was significant attention on real estate deals. It makes sense that she presently aims to explore different types of content, turning outward to other people's stories, at a period in which she asserts that Trumpian politics turns intimate literature obsolete.

Several Eras, Collective Unavoidable Background

The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, spanning three generations – all unable to escape their backgrounds. The book includes the story of characters Emma and Jasper, versions of the author's parents, moving from the urban environment to rural Connecticut. Additionally the story of Kraus herself, in the guise of protagonist Catt Greene, confronting the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her addict husband her husband Paul. The third thread involves the story of the murder of one lost young man by another in a town largely deserted by forward-thinking policies only 80 miles from the protagonist's home in the Minnesota countryside.

As a reader fond of honed writing of the sort the author herself typically rejects, I was captivated by the literary tone of the initial segment.

Being a reader who appreciates honed writing of the style that Kraus herself often disregards, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the first section. It possesses a novel degree of detail that makes room for trivial aspects, like the container that the young Catt dislodges from ice at the beginning of the narrative, helped by her adored dad. "Look, an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a lovely toy", he replies, "the elliptical meanings of words rolling around in their mouths like sweet treats". Kraus writes the tale of Emma with interest and closeness. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not entirely her own."

Frustration and Disruption

I was bound to become frustrated when I expected this different style could continue through the novel. The author states here that she is annoyed by the enjoyment those who appreciate polished prose have derived from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disjunction, to the messy artistic approach she echoes from her hero author Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her earlier works reasserts itself in the second segment. The protagonist is attempting to do up three dozen dilapidated units in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while traveling between two different states, unsuccessful in assisting her husband control his drinking. She feels helpless as Paul moves between low-resource employment as an recovery specialist in a environment driven by the anger and fear that underpins an electoral success. There are several pages about Catt's social media ostracism on a platform, her occupation changed from "novelist" to "property owner" on Wikipedia. She still gives the impression to be overly concerned about this. At one point she remarks that she's researching the homicide so that before leaving Minnesota, "she might be able to learn something about an America that her social media opponents would not understand, would not even see".

The Murder Narrative

Thus we arrive to the homicide in question – and the eponymous day passed by the murdered individual with the murderer and his associates. The author possesses excellent raw material, and reconstructs step by step what transpired when the victim Brandon came to meet Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she marketed explicit images. He sought a sexual encounter but seems affably to have spent the day with her companions, wandering about fixing his automobile and funding treats and narcotics, before being shot by her romantic interest a man named Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has often been institutionalized for fits of anger.

Obsession and Unfinished Business

Catt develops an obsession by the narrative, and I was intrigued by the way that her twin drives towards accurate chronicling and reckless transgression tussle in this section. But I'd have liked her to go further into her individual preoccupations here. The standout figure is the character Brittney, who gains dimension in part due to Catt seeing herself in her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman going off the rails in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus notes that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in prison, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. The complete segment feels strangely incomplete, to the extent that her narrative ends almost mid-par