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The new book features characters chasing after clean slates, attempting to leave behind drugs or toxic relationships, only to find hope curdling into aggression. Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "clean slate", rendering it deliberately jaded through its repetitions. Examples include "He could make a fresh start" and "They chose to begin anew" appear throughout the narrative. At the same time, the author herself is embarking on her individual reinvention, as this seems a new kind of book – fact-based, truly literary. But then it reveals itself to be laden with the recurring issues and approaches as her previous works.

From Chance Novelist to Cult Classic

The writer began as an visual artist who transitioned to writing unintentionally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, structured as epistles to an unresponsive love interest, transforming personal female narrative from abjection into defiance. She continued writing, but the three subsequent compelling and abrasive novels did not possess the shock and immediacy that the epistolary style brought to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her identity as a renegade artist who had turned into a major property owner, so there was considerable focus on real estate deals. It makes sense that she presently aims to explore new kinds of material, looking outwards to the experiences of others, at a moment when she asserts that Trumpian politics turns intimate literature redundant.

Several Eras, One Unescapable Past

The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, spanning three generations – all unable to escape their histories. The book includes the narrative about Emma and Jasper, based on Kraus's parents, transitioning from the urban environment to a pastoral setting. There is the story of Kraus herself, in the guise of Catt Greene, grappling with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction Paul. The third thread involves the narrative of a homicide of one troubled youth by another in a town mostly forsaken by liberal ideals only 80 miles from Catt's rural residence in a remote part of Minnesota.

As a reader attracted to polished prose of the kind Kraus tends to eschew, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the opening part.

As a reader who appreciates precise prose of the style that Kraus herself often disregards, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the first section. It exhibits a fresh level of observation that accommodates trivial aspects, like the bucket that the youthful Catt pries out of frozen water at the opening of the book, aided by her cherished parent. "I found an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a lovely toy", he replies, "the ambiguous meanings of language circulating in their speech like hard candy". She tells the tale of Emma with interest and closeness. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not hers, exactly."

Frustration and Disruption

I was fated to feel let down when I expected this different style could persist to the end. Kraus says here that she dislikes the enjoyment audiences such as myself have derived from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to fragmentation, to the unpolished style she has in common with her hero writer Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her past books comes back in the second segment. The protagonist is attempting to do up multiple decrepit residences in the city's most challenging districts while traveling between Minnesota and LA, failing to help her husband curb his addiction. She is overwhelmed as Paul cycles through low-resource employment as an substance abuse counselor in a environment propelled by the rage and anxiety that powers a political win. A significant portion discusses about the protagonist facing cancellation on social media, her listed profession modified from "author" to "landlord" on a reference site. The author still appears to care a little too much about this. On one occasion she remarks that she's researching the homicide so that before leaving Minnesota, "she could potentially understand something about an the nation that her social media opponents would not understand, would not even see".

The Murder Narrative

Thus we arrive to the homicide in question – and the eponymous day experienced by the victim with the murderer and his associates. The author possesses great source material, and knows hour by hour what occurred as a man named Brandon came to meet Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she sold sex pictures. He sought a sexual encounter but seems affably to have spent the day with her companions, mooching around having his vehicle repaired and funding treats and narcotics, before being shot by her romantic interest Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has frequently been hospitalised for aggressive outbursts.

Obsession and Unfinished Business

Catt gets obsessed by the account, and I found myself captivated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards responsible documentation and audacious rule-breaking clash in this segment. But I'd have liked her to go further into her personal fixations here. The most interesting character is Brittney, who gains dimension partly through the protagonist's connection to her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual derailing in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus notes that Catt speaks to Brittney in prison, but she fails to enact these dialogues. This entire part feels curiously unresolved, to the degree that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par