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The new book is populated with protagonists pursuing fresh starts, struggling to escape substance abuse or abusive marriages, only to see hope turn into aggression. The author repeatedly invokes the phrase "clean slate", rendering it intentionally weary through constant reiteration. Phrases such as "He could make a fresh start" and "They chose to begin anew" appear throughout the story. Meanwhile, she is embarking on her personal new beginning, as this presents as a novel form of writing – fact-based, authentically narrative. Yet it reveals itself to be filled with the same dilemmas and aesthetics as earlier books.

From Chance Novelist to Iconic Work

Kraus began as an artist who entered the literary world almost accidentally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, made up of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, transforming intimate women's literature from self-debasement into assassination. She persisted as a writer, but the next trio of engaging and challenging novels did not possess the impact and rawness that the epistolary style imparted to the tone of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her position as a maverick maker who had evolved into a major property owner, so there was significant attention on real estate deals. It is logical that she currently desires to try out different types of content, looking outwards to other people's stories, at a moment when she asserts that current political era makes confessional writing obsolete.

Several Eras, One Unescapable Past

The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, covering several time periods – each trapped by their backgrounds. We encounter the story of Emma and Jasper, versions of the author's parents, moving from the urban environment to the Connecticut countryside. Additionally the narrative of the author, in the persona of protagonist Catt Greene, grappling with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction a man named Paul. Finally the narrative of a homicide of one directionless individual by another in a town mostly forsaken by progressive politics only a brief drive from the protagonist's home in the Minnesota countryside.

For this reader fond of honed writing of the type Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was enchanted by the novelistic voice of the initial segment.

As someone who reads drawn to honed writing of the style that Kraus herself usually avoids, I was captivated by the storytelling approach of the first section. There is a fresh level of observation that makes room for minutiae, like the bucket that the protagonist as a child pries out of frozen water at the start of the story, assisted by her beloved father. "I found an ice toy!" she declares; "a great plaything", he answers, "the nuanced interpretations of terms rolling around in their mouths like hard candy". The author narrates Emma's story with interest and closeness. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not precisely her dream."

Disappointment and Disjunction

I was bound to become frustrated when I expected this different style could continue through the novel. Kraus notes here that she resents the pleasure audiences such as myself have gotten from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disruption, to the untidy aesthetics she has in common with her idol writer Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her previous novels reasserts itself in the middle section. Catt Greene is attempting to do up three dozen dilapidated units in the city's most challenging districts while shuttling between Minnesota and LA, unsuccessful in assisting Paul control his drinking. She is overwhelmed as her spouse moves between underfunded jobs as an substance abuse counselor in a environment driven by the hostility and dread that underpins an electoral success. Multiple pages are devoted about the protagonist facing cancellation on social media, her occupation changed from "author" to "landlord" on a reference site. The author still appears to invest excessive emotion about this. In a moment she states that she's researching the homicide so that before exiting the region, "she could potentially understand something about an the nation that her social media opponents would be unable to grasp, would not even see".

The Killing Story

Thus we arrive to the homicide in question – and the referenced day experienced by the victim with the perpetrator and his companions. The author possesses compelling foundational content, and reconstructs step by step what occurred as a man named Brandon came to see Brittney after meeting her on an app where she marketed explicit images. He anticipated intimacy but appears congenially to have passed the day with her companions, loitering having his vehicle repaired and funding treats and narcotics, before being shot by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has frequently been hospitalised for aggressive outbursts.

Obsession and Unfinished Business

The protagonist becomes fixated by the narrative, and I was fascinated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards ethical reporting and daring boundary-pushing tussle in this section. But I'd have liked her to explore more thoroughly her individual preoccupations here. The standout figure is Brittney herself, who gains dimension partly through Catt seeing herself in her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual derailing in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus tells us that Catt speaks to Brittney in jail, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The whole section feels strangely incomplete, to the extent that her narrative ends almost mid-par