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This latest work is populated with protagonists pursuing clean slates, struggling to escape drugs or toxic relationships, only to witness hope devolve into violence. The author repeatedly invokes the phrase "clean slate", rendering it willfully cynical through recurring use. Sentences like "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They opted for a clean break" appear throughout the narrative. And yet, she seems to be making her own fresh start, since this appears a new kind of book – fact-based, genuinely novelistic. But then it proves to be filled with the same dilemmas and aesthetics as earlier books.

From Chance Novelist to Cult Classic

Kraus started out as an creative who transitioned to writing almost accidentally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, which was composed of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, converting intimate women's literature from self-debasement into defiance. She persisted as a writer, but the three subsequent fascinating and rebarbative novels missed the shock and immediacy that the letter form infused into the narrative voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her role as a renegade artist who had evolved into a major property owner, so there was considerable focus on housing investments. It makes sense that she currently desires to explore fresh narrative sources, directing her gaze to the experiences of others, at a moment when she states that Trumpian politics renders personal narrative obsolete.

Three Generations, Collective Unavoidable Background

The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, encompassing multiple eras – all unable to escape their backgrounds. We encounter the tale of Emma and Jasper, representations of the author's parents, relocating from the Bronx to a pastoral setting. Then there is the account of Kraus, in the guise of Catt Greene, confronting the late recognition of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her substance-dependent spouse Paul. The third thread involves the narrative of a homicide of one troubled youth by another in a town largely deserted by progressive politics only a brief drive from Catt's cottage in the Minnesota countryside.

As a reader fond of honed writing of the type Kraus tends to eschew, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the opening part.

As someone who reads drawn to crafted language of the style that the author usually avoids, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the opening segment. There is a novel degree of detail that allows space for minutiae, like the bucket that the young Catt frees from the ice at the beginning of the narrative, aided by her cherished parent. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she says; "a nice toy", he responds, "the elliptical meanings of words rolling around in their mouths like sweet treats". She tells Emma's story with inquiry and familiarity. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not entirely her own."

Frustration and Disruption

I was destined to be disappointed when I expected this different style could persist to the end. The author states here that she dislikes the satisfaction readers like me have taken from I Love Dick; she's committed to disjunction, to the messy artistic approach she has in common with her inspiration writer Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her past books comes back in the middle section. Catt Greene is working on refurbishing multiple decrepit residences 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 transitions between low-resource employment as an addiction therapist in a society driven by the rage and anxiety that underpins an electoral success. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt being cancelled on Twitter, her professional designation altered from "novelist" to "property owner" on a reference site. Kraus still seems to be overly concerned about this. In a moment she remarks that she's investigating the murder so that before leaving Minnesota, "she may grasp something about an the United States that her online critics would fail to comprehend, would overlook entirely".

The Homicide Account

Thus we arrive to the homicide in question – and the referenced day spent by the victim with the perpetrator and his companions. The author possesses great source material, and details moment by moment what transpired when Brandon came to visit 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, mooching around getting his car mended and funding treats and narcotics, before being murdered by her romantic interest a man named Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has frequently been hospitalised for fits of anger.

Obsession and Unfinished Business

Catt gets obsessed by the account, and I was intrigued by the way that her twin drives towards ethical reporting and audacious rule-breaking wrestle in this part. But I'd have liked her to go further into her own obsessions here. The compelling persona is Brittney herself, who becomes vivid in part due to the protagonist's connection to her – another bright, bullied girl spiraling out of control in a struggling, neglected community. The author informs us that Catt speaks to Brittney in detention, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The complete segment feels oddly unfinished, to the degree that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par