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This latest work is populated with protagonists pursuing new beginnings, struggling to escape addictions or harmful partnerships, only to witness hope devolve into violence. The author often employs the phrase "clean slate", rendering it deliberately jaded through its repetitions. Examples include "He aimed to start over" and "They opted for a clean break" appear throughout the narrative. Meanwhile, Kraus herself appears to be undertaking her personal new beginning, as this seems a different type of work – documentarian, truly literary. However it turns out to be laden with the recurring issues and aesthetics as earlier books.

From Accidental Writer to Iconic Work

Kraus was originally an artist who became a writer almost accidentally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, made up of letters to an unreceptive lover, elevating personal female narrative from humiliation into defiance. She persisted as a writer, but the following three engaging and challenging novels lacked the shock and immediacy that the epistolary style imparted to the tone of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her identity as a maverick maker who had evolved into a extensive real estate holder, so there was much discussion on real estate deals. It follows that she presently aims to explore fresh narrative sources, turning outward to the experiences of others, at a moment when she states that current political era renders personal narrative obsolete.

Multiple Generations, Shared Inescapable History

The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, spanning several time periods – all unable to escape their histories. There is the story of characters Emma and Jasper, versions of the author's parents, relocating from the urban environment to the Connecticut countryside. There is the story of Kraus herself, in the character of a figure named Catt Greene, reckoning with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction her husband Paul. The third thread involves the narrative of a homicide of one troubled youth by another in a community largely deserted by forward-thinking policies only a brief drive from Catt's rural residence in a remote part of Minnesota.

For this reader fond of honed writing of the type Kraus typically rejects, I was enchanted by the novelistic voice of the opening part.

Being a reader drawn to crafted language of the style that the author tends to eschew, I was won over by the literary tone of the initial part. It exhibits a new quality of attentiveness that accommodates minutiae, like the pail that the young Catt pries out of frozen water at the start of the story, helped by her beloved father. "Look, an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a lovely toy", he responds, "the elliptical meanings of words rolling around in their mouths like sweet treats". Kraus writes Emma's story with interest and closeness. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not entirely her own."

Frustration and Disruption

I was destined to be disappointed when I expected this different style could last out the book. Kraus says here that she resents the enjoyment those who appreciate polished prose have gotten from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to fragmentation, to the unpolished style she echoes from her hero writer Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her previous novels reasserts itself in the middle section. Catt Greene is attempting to do up multiple decrepit residences in the city's most challenging districts while moving between the Midwest and the West Coast, failing to help Paul manage his alcohol use. She experiences powerlessness as Paul transitions between underfunded jobs as an addiction therapist in a environment propelled by the anger and fear that drives Trump's victory. A significant portion discusses about the protagonist facing cancellation on a platform, her listed profession modified from "novelist" to "real estate holder" on Wikipedia. The author still appears to be overly concerned 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 not understand, would not even see".

The Murder Narrative

So then we come to the actual killing – and the titular day passed by the murdered individual with the murderer and his associates. Kraus utilizes compelling foundational content, and knows hour by hour what transpired when a man named Brandon came to meet Brittney after connecting via an application where she offered adult photos. He sought a sexual encounter but seems affably to have spent the day with her companions, wandering about having his vehicle repaired and paying for snacks and drugs, before being murdered by Brittney's partner Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has repeatedly received inpatient care for fits of anger.

Fascination and Incompletion

The protagonist becomes fixated by the account, and I was intrigued by the way that her twin drives towards responsible documentation and reckless transgression clash in this segment. Yet I wished her to go further into her own obsessions here. The compelling persona is the character Brittney, who comes alive 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 omits the dramatization of these talks. The whole section feels oddly unfinished, to the degree that her narrative ends almost mid-par