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This latest work is populated with characters pursuing new beginnings, trying to break free from drugs or harmful partnerships, only to see hope turn into aggression. The author repeatedly invokes the phrase "clean slate", rendering it deliberately jaded through constant reiteration. Sentences like "He aimed to start over" and "They chose to begin anew" are scattered across the story. And yet, she seems to be making her personal new beginning, because this appears a novel form of writing – observational, truly literary. However it proves to be laden with the familiar conflicts and aesthetics as past novels.

From Unplanned Author to Renowned Book

The writer began as an artist who became a writer unintentionally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, structured as missives to a distant beloved, transforming confessional female writing from abjection into rebellion. She kept producing books, but the following three fascinating and rebarbative novels missed the power and directness that the letter form imparted to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her identity as a maverick maker who had become a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was much discussion on housing investments. It makes sense that she presently aims to try out fresh narrative sources, turning outward to external narratives, at a period in which she states that contemporary political climate makes confessional writing redundant.

Multiple Generations, Shared Inescapable History

The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, covering several time periods – none able to break free from their histories. There is the narrative about characters Emma and Jasper, versions of her own mother and father, transitioning from the urban environment to a pastoral setting. There is the account of Kraus, in the persona of Catt Greene, confronting the late recognition of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her addict husband her husband Paul. And there is the story of the murder of one directionless individual by another in a locality largely deserted by forward-thinking policies only a brief drive from Catt's cottage in rural Minnesota.

From my perspective as a reader fond of refined literature of the sort Kraus typically rejects, I was enchanted by the narrative style of the first section.

As someone who reads who appreciates honed writing of the kind that the author usually avoids, I was seduced by the storytelling approach of the opening segment. There is a fresh level of observation that allows space for trivial aspects, like the pail that the protagonist as a child frees from the ice at the start of the story, assisted by her adored dad. "I found an ice toy!" she says; "a lovely toy", he replies, "the ambiguous meanings of language circulating in their speech like sweet treats". She tells Emma's story with interest and closeness. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not hers, exactly."

Frustration and Disruption

I was fated to feel let down when I expected this different style could persist to the end. The author states here that she dislikes the enjoyment audiences such as myself have derived from I Love Dick; she's devoted to fragmentation, to the unpolished style she shares with her idol author Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her past books reasserts itself in the central part. Catt Greene is working on refurbishing multiple decrepit residences in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while traveling between Minnesota and LA, unable to aid her husband control his drinking. She experiences powerlessness as Paul moves between underfunded jobs as an substance abuse counselor in a society propelled by the rage and anxiety that drives a political win. There are several pages about the protagonist facing cancellation on Twitter, her professional designation altered from "writer" to "property owner" on a reference site. Kraus still seems to care a little too much about this. On one occasion she remarks 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 be unable to grasp, would overlook entirely".

The Murder Narrative

Then we reach to the actual killing – and the titular day passed by the murdered individual with the perpetrator and his associates. Kraus utilizes excellent raw material, and knows hour by hour what transpired when Brandon came to visit Brittney after meeting her on an app where she sold sex pictures. He anticipated intimacy but seems affably to have spent the day in the company of her associates, loitering getting his car mended and paying for snacks and drugs, before being shot by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has repeatedly received inpatient care for violent rage.

Preoccupation and Open Ends

Catt develops an obsession by the narrative, and I was fascinated by the way that her twin drives towards accurate chronicling and audacious rule-breaking clash in this segment. Yet I wished her to delve deeper into her individual preoccupations here. The compelling persona is the character Brittney, who gains dimension partly through the protagonist's connection to her – another bright, bullied girl spiraling out of control in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus notes that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in detention, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. This entire part feels oddly unfinished, to the extent that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par