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The new book features protagonists chasing after clean slates, trying to break free from addictions or abusive marriages, only to find hope curdling into aggression. Kraus often employs the phrase "clean slate", making it intentionally weary through constant reiteration. Examples include "He aimed to start over" and "They decided to make a fresh start" appear throughout the narrative. At the same time, she appears to be undertaking her personal new beginning, because this appears a new kind of book – observational, truly literary. Yet it turns out to be packed with the recurring issues and aesthetics as earlier books.

From Accidental Writer to Renowned Book

The writer started out as an visual artist who entered the literary world somewhat by chance with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, which was composed of letters to an unreceptive lover, elevating personal female narrative from self-debasement into defiance. She continued writing, but the next trio of fascinating and rebarbative novels missed the impact and rawness that the letter form infused into the voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her role as a maverick maker who had become a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was significant attention on property transactions. It is logical that she presently aims to explore fresh narrative sources, looking outwards to other people's stories, at a moment when she states that current political era makes confessional writing obsolete.

Multiple Generations, One Unescapable Past

The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, encompassing three generations – none able to break free from their histories. There is the narrative about Emma and Jasper, based on Kraus's parents, transitioning from the Bronx to rural Connecticut. Additionally the account of Kraus, in the persona of Catt Greene, confronting the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse her husband Paul. The third thread involves the story of the murder of one lost young man by another in a locality largely deserted by progressive politics only 80 miles from Catt's cottage in the Minnesota countryside.

As a reader attracted to honed writing of the type the author herself often avoids, I was enchanted by the narrative style of the initial segment.

As a reader who favors crafted language of the style that the author usually avoids, I was won over by the literary tone of the initial part. It possesses a novel degree of detail 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 adored dad. "Look, an ice toy!" she declares; "a lovely toy", he responds, "the ambiguous meanings of language circulating in their speech like sweet treats". She tells Emma's story with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not hers, exactly."

Disappointment and Disjunction

I was destined to be disappointed when I hoped this new voice could last out the book. The author states here that she dislikes the satisfaction readers like me have gotten from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disjunction, to the unpolished style she shares with her inspiration Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her previous novels comes back in the central part. Catt Greene is working on refurbishing 36 run-down apartments in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while shuttling between two different states, unsuccessful in assisting Paul manage his alcohol use. She experiences powerlessness as Paul transitions between poorly supported positions as an recovery specialist in a environment fueled by the hostility and dread that powers a political win. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt's social media ostracism on Twitter, her occupation changed from "author" to "landlord" on Wikipedia. The author still appears to care a little too much about this. On one occasion she remarks that she's looking into the killing so that before leaving Minnesota, "she could potentially understand something about an America that her Twitter detractors would fail to comprehend, would not even see".

The Murder Narrative

Thus we arrive to the actual killing – and the referenced day spent by the deceased with the murderer and his associates. Kraus has excellent raw material, and reconstructs step by step what happened when Brandon came to see Brittney after meeting her on an app where she sold sex pictures. He sought a sexual encounter but seems amiably to have occupied the day in the company of her associates, wandering about getting his car mended and covering the cost of food and substances, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's partner Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has repeatedly received inpatient care for aggressive outbursts.

Fascination and Incompletion

Catt develops an obsession by the narrative, and I found myself captivated by the way that her twin drives towards accurate chronicling and daring boundary-pushing clash in this segment. But I'd have liked her to explore more thoroughly her individual preoccupations here. The most interesting character is Brittney herself, who comes alive partly through Catt seeing herself in her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman spiraling out of control in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus tells us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in jail, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The whole section feels curiously unresolved, to the point that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par