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The new book features protagonists chasing after fresh starts, struggling to escape drugs or toxic relationships, only to find hope curdling into violence. Kraus frequently uses the phrase "clean slate", transforming it into willfully cynical through constant reiteration. Examples include "He aimed to start over" and "They chose to begin anew" are scattered across the narrative. Meanwhile, Kraus herself is embarking on her own fresh start, because this seems a different type of work – fact-based, authentically narrative. Yet it turns out to be filled with the same dilemmas and aesthetics as earlier books.

From Accidental Writer to Cult Classic

Kraus began as an visual artist who entered the literary world unintentionally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, which was composed of letters to an unreceptive lover, converting personal female narrative from self-debasement into rebellion. She continued writing, but the following three compelling and abrasive novels missed the shock and immediacy that the correspondence format brought to the voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her position as a renegade artist who had become a extensive real estate holder, so there was considerable focus on real estate deals. It makes sense that she now wants to try out new kinds of material, turning outward to the experiences of others, at a period in which she claims that Trumpian politics renders personal narrative unnecessary.

Several Eras, Shared Inescapable History

The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, spanning multiple eras – none able to break free from their histories. We encounter the narrative about a couple named Emma and Jasper, versions of her own mother and father, transitioning from the urban environment to rural Connecticut. Then there is the story of Kraus herself, in the character of a figure named Catt Greene, grappling with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse a man named Paul. The third thread involves the story of the murder of one lost young man by another in a locality long abandoned by liberal ideals only 80 miles from Catt's cottage in a remote part of Minnesota.

For this reader attracted to polished prose of the sort the author herself tends to eschew, I was seduced by the literary tone of the initial segment.

As someone who reads who appreciates precise prose of the style that the author tends to eschew, I was captivated by the storytelling approach of the opening segment. It possesses a novel degree of detail that accommodates small details, like the bucket that the youthful Catt dislodges from ice at the beginning of the narrative, helped by her adored dad. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she declares; "a nice toy", he responds, "the nuanced interpretations of terms rolling around in their mouths like hard candy". She tells Emma's narrative with interest and closeness. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not hers, exactly."

Disappointment and Disjunction

I was destined to be disappointed when I hoped this new voice could continue through the novel. The author states here that she resents the enjoyment readers like me have gotten from I Love Dick; she's committed to disruption, to the unpolished style she shares with her inspiration Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her previous novels reasserts itself in the middle section. The protagonist is trying to renovate 36 run-down apartments in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while shuttling between the Midwest and the West Coast, failing to help Paul curb his addiction. She is overwhelmed as her spouse cycles through underfunded jobs as an addiction therapist in a society driven by the rage and anxiety that powers Trump's victory. There are several pages about Catt's social media ostracism on Twitter, her professional designation altered from "novelist" to "landlord" on the online encyclopedia. She still gives the impression to be overly concerned about this. At one point she remarks that she's investigating the murder so that before exiting the region, "she may grasp something about an the nation that her social media opponents would be unable to grasp, would overlook entirely".

The Homicide Account

Then we reach to the actual killing – and the titular day passed by the deceased with the killer and his associates. The author possesses great source material, and details moment by moment what transpired when the victim Brandon came to visit Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she offered adult photos. He anticipated intimacy but seems affably to have spent the day alongside her friends, wandering about fixing his automobile and funding treats and narcotics, before being murdered by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has repeatedly received inpatient care for fits of anger.

Obsession and Unfinished Business

Catt develops an obsession by the story, and I found myself captivated by the way that her twin drives towards responsible documentation and daring boundary-pushing clash in this segment. But I'd have liked her to go further into her personal fixations here. The compelling persona is Brittney, who comes alive partly through Catt's identification with her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman derailing in a difficult, overlooked locality. The author informs us that Catt converses with Brittney in prison, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The complete segment feels curiously unresolved, to the extent that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par