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This latest work centers on protagonists chasing after fresh starts, trying to break free from addictions or toxic relationships, only to find hope curdling into violence. The author often employs the phrase "clean slate", making it deliberately jaded through recurring use. Phrases such as "He aimed to start over" and "They decided to make a fresh start" appear throughout the narrative. Meanwhile, the author herself seems to be making her individual reinvention, as this seems a different type of work – observational, authentically narrative. However it turns out to be packed with the familiar conflicts and aesthetics as past novels.

From Unplanned Author to Iconic Work

The writer started out as an creative who entered the literary world almost accidentally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, made up of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, elevating confessional female writing from self-debasement into rebellion. She kept producing books, but the following three compelling and abrasive novels did not possess the power and directness that the epistolary style imparted to the voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her role as a maverick maker who had evolved into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was considerable focus on housing investments. It makes sense that she currently desires to try out different types of content, directing her gaze to the experiences of others, at a time when she claims that contemporary political climate makes confessional writing redundant.

Multiple Generations, Collective Unavoidable Background

The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, covering three generations – all unable to escape their backgrounds. We encounter the story of a couple named Emma and Jasper, representations of Kraus's parents, moving from the urban environment to a pastoral setting. Additionally the account of Kraus, in the persona of a figure named Catt Greene, reckoning with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction her husband Paul. Finally the narrative of a homicide of one directionless individual by another in a community mostly forsaken by liberal ideals only a short distance from Catt's rural residence in rural Minnesota.

For this reader fond of honed writing of the type Kraus tends to eschew, I was captivated by the narrative style of the first section.

As someone who reads who appreciates crafted language of the style that Kraus herself usually avoids, I was won over by the storytelling approach of the first section. It exhibits a fresh level of observation that allows space for small details, like the pail that the protagonist as a child frees from the ice at the beginning of the narrative, aided by her adored dad. "Look, an ice toy!" she says; "a great plaything", he responds, "the ambiguous meanings of language circulating in their speech like hard candy". 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 hoped this fresh tone could continue through the novel. The author states here that she dislikes the pleasure audiences such as myself have taken from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disruption, to the unpolished style she has in common with her hero writer Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her previous novels comes back in the second segment. Catt is working on refurbishing multiple decrepit residences in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while traveling between the Midwest and the West Coast, unable to aid Paul manage his alcohol use. She feels helpless as Paul transitions between underfunded jobs as an recovery specialist in a environment propelled by the rage and anxiety that drives a political win. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt's social media ostracism on social media, her occupation changed from "writer" to "landlord" on a reference site. Kraus still seems to be overly concerned about this. On one occasion she states that she's looking into the killing so that before leaving Minnesota, "she might be able to learn something about an America that her social media opponents would be unable to grasp, would overlook entirely".

The Murder Narrative

So then we come to the murder itself – and the eponymous day experienced by the deceased with the murderer and his associates. The author possesses compelling foundational content, and details moment by moment what occurred as the victim Brandon came to meet Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she marketed explicit images. He sought a sexual encounter but appears congenially to have passed the day with her companions, mooching around fixing his automobile and covering the cost of food and substances, before being murdered by her romantic interest a man named Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has repeatedly received inpatient care for fits of anger.

Preoccupation and Open Ends

Catt develops an obsession by the narrative, and I found myself captivated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards accurate chronicling and audacious rule-breaking clash in this segment. Yet I wished her to explore more thoroughly her personal fixations here. The compelling persona is the character Brittney, who becomes vivid in part due to the protagonist's connection to her – another bright, bullied girl going off the rails 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 oddly unfinished, to the extent that her narrative ends almost mid-par