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This latest work is populated with protagonists pursuing clean slates, attempting to leave behind drugs or toxic relationships, only to see hope turn into aggression. Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "clean slate", transforming it into intentionally weary through its repetitions. Examples include "He could make a fresh start" and "They opted for a clean break" recur in the text. And yet, the author herself is embarking on her individual reinvention, since this seems a novel form of writing – observational, genuinely novelistic. Yet it reveals itself to be laden with the familiar conflicts and approaches as past novels.

From Unplanned Author to Cult Classic

The writer was originally an artist who transitioned to writing almost accidentally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, made up of missives to a distant beloved, converting personal female narrative from humiliation into defiance. She persisted as a writer, but the following three engaging and challenging novels lacked the impact and rawness that the epistolary style brought to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her role as a renegade artist who had evolved into a major property owner, so there was much discussion on housing investments. It is logical that she currently desires to try out new kinds of material, directing her gaze to the experiences of others, at a time when she claims that current political era makes confessional writing redundant.

Multiple Generations, One Unescapable Past

The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, encompassing multiple eras – all unable to escape their backgrounds. There is the tale of a couple named Emma and Jasper, representations of her own mother and father, transitioning from the Bronx to rural Connecticut. Then there is the account of Kraus, in the guise of a figure named Catt Greene, grappling with the belated success of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction a man named Paul. Finally the story of the murder of one lost young man by another in a locality largely deserted by forward-thinking policies only 80 miles from the protagonist's home in rural Minnesota.

For this reader drawn to refined literature of the sort Kraus herself typically rejects, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the initial segment.

As someone who reads drawn to precise prose of the variety that the author usually avoids, I was captivated by the literary tone of the opening segment. It possesses a fresh level of observation that accommodates minutiae, like the pail that the youthful Catt frees from the ice at the opening of the book, aided by her adored dad. "Look, an ice toy!" she declares; "a nice toy", he replies, "the ambiguous meanings of language circulating in their speech like piece candy". Kraus writes Emma's narrative with interest and closeness. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not precisely her dream."

Frustration and Disruption

I was bound to become frustrated when I wished this fresh tone could last out the book. Kraus notes here that she dislikes the enjoyment those who appreciate polished prose have derived from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disruption, to the unpolished style she has in common with her inspiration author Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her earlier works comes back in the central part. The protagonist is trying to renovate multiple decrepit residences in the city's most challenging districts while moving between two different states, unsuccessful in assisting Paul control his drinking. She is overwhelmed as Paul moves between underfunded jobs as an addiction therapist in a world propelled by the anger and fear that underpins Trump's victory. Multiple pages are devoted about the protagonist facing cancellation on social media, her listed profession modified from "novelist" to "real estate holder" on a reference site. Kraus still seems to care a little too much about this. At one point she remarks that she's looking into the killing so that before departing the state, "she might be able to learn something about an the nation that her social media opponents would not understand, would overlook entirely".

The Homicide Account

Thus we arrive to the actual killing – and the eponymous day spent by the deceased with the perpetrator and his associates. Kraus has great source 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 was hoping for sex but seems affably to have spent the day with her companions, wandering about getting his car mended and covering the cost of food and substances, before being shot by Brittney's partner Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has often been institutionalized for fits of anger.

Preoccupation and Open Ends

The protagonist becomes fixated by the story, and I was intrigued by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards accurate chronicling and daring boundary-pushing wrestle in this part. But I'd have liked her to explore more thoroughly her individual preoccupations here. The most interesting character is the character Brittney, who becomes vivid in part due to Catt's identification with her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman derailing in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus notes that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in detention, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. The complete segment feels oddly unfinished, to the extent that her narrative ends almost mid-par