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This latest work centers on individuals seeking clean slates, attempting to leave behind drugs or abusive marriages, only to find hope curdling into violence. The author frequently uses the phrase "clean slate", making it intentionally weary through constant reiteration. Phrases such as "He could make a fresh start" and "They opted for a clean break" recur in the narrative. At the same time, Kraus herself appears to be undertaking her own fresh start, since this presents as a different type of work – fact-based, truly literary. However it reveals itself to be packed with the same dilemmas and styles as her previous works.

From Unplanned Author to Cult Classic

Kraus began as an artist who became a writer unintentionally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, structured as epistles to an unresponsive love interest, converting personal female narrative from self-debasement into rebellion. She kept producing books, but the next trio of compelling and abrasive novels lacked the shock and immediacy that the epistolary style brought to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her role as a renegade artist who had turned into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was considerable focus on real estate deals. It is logical that she currently desires to try out new kinds of material, looking outwards to the experiences of others, at a moment when she states that Trumpian politics renders personal narrative obsolete.

Three Generations, One Unescapable Past

The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, encompassing multiple eras – none able to break free from their histories. There is the tale of a couple named Emma and Jasper, versions of Kraus's parents, relocating from the Bronx to a pastoral setting. Additionally the story of Kraus herself, in the guise of Catt Greene, confronting the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction a man named Paul. Finally the narrative of a homicide of one lost young man by another in a community long abandoned by liberal ideals only a brief drive from Catt's cottage in the Minnesota countryside.

From my perspective as a reader fond of honed writing of the kind the author herself tends to eschew, I was seduced by the narrative style of the first section.

As someone who reads drawn to precise prose of the variety that Kraus herself usually avoids, I was won over by the storytelling approach of the opening segment. It exhibits a new quality of attentiveness that allows space for trivial aspects, like the bucket that the youthful Catt frees from the ice at the opening of the book, helped by her beloved father. "I found an ice toy!" she says; "a great plaything", he replies, "the ambiguous meanings of language tumbling in their mouths like sweet treats". Kraus writes Emma's story with interest and closeness. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not entirely her own."

Disappointment and Disjunction

I was bound to become frustrated when I expected this new voice could persist to the end. Kraus says here that she is annoyed by the satisfaction those who appreciate polished prose have gotten from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disruption, to the untidy aesthetics she shares with her inspiration author Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her past books comes back in the middle section. Catt is trying to renovate multiple decrepit residences in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while shuttling between the Midwest and the West Coast, unable to aid Paul manage his alcohol use. She feels helpless as Paul cycles through low-resource employment as an substance abuse counselor in a environment driven by the rage and anxiety that drives Trump's victory. A significant portion discusses about Catt being cancelled on social media, her occupation changed from "author" to "landlord" on Wikipedia. Kraus still seems to be overly concerned about this. On one occasion she says that she's researching the homicide so that before departing the state, "she may grasp something about an America that her social media opponents would fail to comprehend, would not even perceive".

The Killing Story

Thus we arrive to the homicide in question – and the eponymous day spent by the deceased with the perpetrator and his friends. Kraus utilizes excellent raw material, and details moment by moment what happened when a man named Brandon came to meet Brittney after meeting her on an app where she marketed explicit images. He was hoping for sex but seems affably to have spent the day with her companions, loitering having his vehicle repaired and covering the cost of food and substances, before being killed by gunfire by her romantic interest Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has repeatedly received inpatient care for violent rage.

Fascination and Incompletion

The protagonist becomes fixated by the narrative, and I found myself captivated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards ethical reporting and audacious rule-breaking clash in this segment. However, I would have preferred her to delve deeper into her individual preoccupations here. The compelling persona is Brittney, who gains dimension partly through Catt seeing herself in her – another bright, bullied girl going off the rails in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus tells us that Catt converses with Brittney in detention, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The complete segment feels strangely incomplete, to the point that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par