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The new book features protagonists pursuing fresh starts, trying to break free from addictions or abusive marriages, only to see hope turn into violence. Kraus often employs the phrase "clean slate", transforming it into intentionally weary through its repetitions. Sentences like "He could make a fresh start" and "They decided to make a fresh start" are scattered across the narrative. At the same time, she seems to be making her personal new beginning, as this seems a new kind of book – observational, truly literary. However it reveals itself to be laden with the recurring issues and approaches as past novels.

From Chance Novelist to Renowned Book

Kraus began as an visual artist who transitioned to writing somewhat by chance with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, made up of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, converting intimate women's literature from self-debasement into defiance. She continued writing, but the following three engaging and challenging novels missed the power and directness that the letter form imparted to the voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her role as a nonconformist creator who had evolved into a extensive real estate holder, so there was significant attention on housing investments. It makes sense that she currently desires to try out new kinds of material, directing her gaze to the experiences of others, at a time when she claims that Trumpian politics makes confessional writing unnecessary.

Multiple Generations, Collective Unavoidable Background

The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, spanning several time periods – none able to break free from their pasts. We encounter the tale of Emma and Jasper, based on the author's parents, transitioning from the Bronx to rural Connecticut. Additionally the story of Kraus herself, in the persona of Catt Greene, reckoning with the belated success of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction Paul. The third thread involves the narrative of a homicide of one lost young man by another in a town mostly forsaken by progressive politics only 80 miles from Catt's rural residence in a remote part of Minnesota.

As a reader attracted to honed writing of the sort Kraus tends to eschew, I was captivated by the literary tone of the opening part.

Being a reader who appreciates crafted language of the kind that Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was seduced by the storytelling approach of the opening segment. It possesses a new quality of attentiveness that allows space for small details, like the pail that the young Catt dislodges from ice at the opening of the book, aided by her cherished parent. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she exclaims; "a lovely toy", he responds, "the ambiguous meanings of language tumbling in their mouths like sweet treats". She tells Emma's narrative with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not hers, exactly."

Letdown and Fragmentation

I was destined to be disappointed when I hoped this fresh tone could continue through the novel. The author states here that she is annoyed by the enjoyment audiences such as myself have gotten from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disruption, to the messy artistic approach she has in common with her idol writer Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her past books returns in the middle section. The protagonist is trying to renovate three dozen dilapidated units in the city's most challenging districts while shuttling between the Midwest and the West Coast, unsuccessful in assisting Paul curb his addiction. She is overwhelmed as Paul cycles through underfunded jobs as an addiction therapist in a environment propelled by the anger and fear that powers a political win. Multiple pages are devoted about the protagonist facing cancellation on Twitter, her professional designation altered from "author" to "property owner" on Wikipedia. The author still appears to invest excessive emotion about this. On one occasion she says that she's looking into the killing so that before exiting the region, "she could potentially understand something about an America that her Twitter detractors would be unable to grasp, would not even perceive".

The Killing Story

Thus we arrive to the actual killing – and the referenced day passed by the murdered individual with the murderer and his associates. Kraus has great source material, and details moment by moment what happened when a man named Brandon came to meet Brittney after connecting via an application where she offered adult photos. He anticipated intimacy but seems affably to have spent the day with her companions, wandering about having his vehicle repaired and funding treats and narcotics, before being murdered by her romantic interest Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has frequently been hospitalised for violent rage.

Preoccupation and Open Ends

Catt develops an obsession by the story, and I found myself captivated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards accurate chronicling and audacious rule-breaking tussle in this section. However, I would have preferred her to go further into her individual preoccupations here. The standout figure is Brittney, who gains dimension partially because of the protagonist's connection to her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman going off the rails in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus notes that Catt speaks to Brittney in detention, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. This entire part feels curiously unresolved, to the point that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par