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This latest work centers on individuals pursuing clean slates, trying to break free from drugs or harmful partnerships, only to find hope curdling into aggression. Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "clean slate", making it deliberately jaded through its repetitions. Phrases such as "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They chose to begin anew" are scattered across the text. Meanwhile, she seems to be making her personal new beginning, as this seems a new kind of book – observational, genuinely novelistic. However it turns out to be filled with the familiar conflicts and aesthetics as past novels.

From Accidental Writer to Renowned Book

The writer was originally an visual artist who entered the literary world almost accidentally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, which was composed of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, elevating intimate women's literature from abjection into defiance. She kept producing books, but the following three engaging and challenging novels missed the shock and immediacy that the epistolary style infused into the voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her position as a nonconformist creator who had evolved into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was considerable focus on housing investments. It follows that she now wants to try out new kinds of material, directing her gaze to other people's stories, at a period in which she asserts that current political era turns intimate literature unnecessary.

Three Generations, One Unescapable Past

The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, covering three generations – all unable to escape their histories. The book includes the tale of characters Emma and Jasper, versions of Kraus's parents, moving from the urban environment to rural Connecticut. There is the account of Kraus, in the guise of protagonist Catt Greene, reckoning with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her partner struggling with addiction a man named Paul. And there is the story of the murder 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.

For this reader drawn to polished prose of the type Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was captivated by the narrative style of the initial segment.

As a reader who appreciates precise prose of the variety that Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was captivated by the storytelling approach of the first section. It exhibits a fresh level of observation that allows space for minutiae, like the bucket that the youthful Catt pries out of frozen water at the beginning of the narrative, helped by her cherished parent. "Look, an ice toy!" she says; "a lovely toy", he replies, "the elliptical meanings of words tumbling in their mouths like hard candy". Kraus writes Emma's narrative with interest and closeness. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not entirely her own."

Frustration and Disruption

I was bound to become frustrated when I hoped this different style could continue through the novel. Kraus says here that she resents the satisfaction those who appreciate polished prose have taken from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disjunction, to the messy artistic approach she shares with her inspiration Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her past books reasserts itself in the middle section. Catt Greene is attempting to do up multiple decrepit residences in the city's most challenging districts while moving between Minnesota and LA, unsuccessful in assisting her husband manage his alcohol use. She is overwhelmed as her spouse transitions between underfunded jobs as an addiction therapist in a world fueled by the hostility and dread that powers an electoral success. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt being cancelled on social media, her listed profession modified from "writer" to "real estate holder" on a reference site. Kraus still seems to be overly concerned about this. At one point she says that she's investigating the murder so that before exiting the region, "she could potentially understand something about an the United States that her social media opponents would be unable to grasp, would overlook entirely".

The Homicide Account

Thus we arrive to the murder itself – and the referenced day experienced by the deceased with the perpetrator and his associates. The author possesses great source material, and knows hour by hour what happened when Brandon came to visit Brittney after connecting via an application where she sold sex pictures. He anticipated intimacy but seems amiably to have occupied the day alongside her friends, wandering about getting his car mended and covering the cost of food and substances, before being shot by her romantic interest a man named Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has frequently been hospitalised for fits of anger.

Obsession and Unfinished Business

Catt develops an obsession by the account, and I was fascinated by the way that her twin drives towards accurate chronicling and audacious rule-breaking tussle in this section. Yet I wished her to explore more thoroughly her individual preoccupations here. The most interesting character is Brittney, who comes alive partly through Catt's identification with her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual derailing in a difficult, overlooked locality. The author informs us that Catt converses with Brittney in jail, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The whole section feels strangely incomplete, to the degree that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par