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This latest work is populated with individuals pursuing fresh starts, attempting to leave behind drugs or toxic relationships, only to witness hope devolve into aggression. The author often employs the phrase "clean slate", making it intentionally weary through its repetitions. Examples include "He could make a fresh start" and "They chose to begin anew" recur in the text. Meanwhile, the author herself seems to be making her personal new beginning, as this seems a new kind of book – fact-based, authentically narrative. Yet it turns out to be packed with the recurring issues and styles as her previous works.

From Accidental Writer to Cult Classic

The writer began as an visual artist who entered the literary world unintentionally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, structured as epistles to an unresponsive love interest, converting intimate women's literature from humiliation into defiance. She persisted as a writer, but the three subsequent fascinating and rebarbative novels lacked the power and directness that the correspondence format imparted to the voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her identity as a maverick maker who had evolved into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was considerable focus on housing investments. It is logical that she currently desires to experiment with fresh narrative sources, turning outward to the experiences of others, at a moment when she claims that Trumpian politics makes confessional writing redundant.

Several Eras, One Unescapable Past

The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, encompassing three generations – none able to break free from their pasts. There is the story of characters Emma and Jasper, representations of her own mother and father, transitioning from the Bronx to rural Connecticut. Then there is the story of Kraus herself, in the persona of a figure named Catt Greene, reckoning with the belated success of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse her husband Paul. And there is the story of the murder of one lost young man by another in a town long abandoned by progressive politics only a brief drive from Catt's cottage in a remote part of Minnesota.

For this reader fond of refined literature of the sort Kraus herself often avoids, I was seduced by the literary tone of the first section.

As a reader who appreciates crafted language of the style that Kraus tends to eschew, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the initial part. It exhibits a fresh level of observation that accommodates minutiae, like the bucket that the protagonist as a child frees from the ice at the beginning of the narrative, helped by her beloved father. "I found an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a nice toy", he answers, "the nuanced interpretations of terms rolling around in their mouths like sweet treats". She tells the tale of Emma with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not hers, exactly."

Frustration and Disruption

I was fated to feel let down when I wished this new voice could continue through the novel. The author states here that she dislikes the satisfaction those who appreciate polished prose have gotten from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disjunction, to the messy artistic approach she echoes from her idol Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her past books reasserts itself in the central part. The protagonist is trying to renovate three dozen dilapidated units in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while traveling between Minnesota and LA, failing to help her husband control his drinking. She experiences powerlessness as her spouse transitions between low-resource employment as an recovery specialist in a society propelled by the anger and fear that drives an electoral success. Multiple pages are devoted about the protagonist facing cancellation on a platform, her occupation changed from "novelist" to "landlord" on a reference site. Kraus still seems to be overly concerned about this. On one occasion she states that she's researching the homicide so that before departing the state, "she might be able to learn something about an America that her online critics would fail to comprehend, would not even perceive".

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 friends. Kraus utilizes great source material, and reconstructs step by step what occurred as the victim Brandon came to meet Brittney after meeting her on an app where she offered adult photos. He sought a sexual encounter but seems affably to have spent the day with her companions, mooching around having his vehicle repaired and paying for snacks and drugs, before being murdered by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has repeatedly received inpatient care for aggressive outbursts.

Preoccupation and Open Ends

Catt gets obsessed by the narrative, and I was intrigued by the way that her twin drives towards accurate chronicling and daring boundary-pushing clash in this segment. However, I would have preferred her to explore more thoroughly her own obsessions here. The most interesting character is Brittney, who becomes vivid in part due to Catt's identification with her – another bright, bullied girl derailing in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus tells us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in detention, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The whole section feels strangely incomplete, to the extent that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par