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The new book is populated with protagonists seeking clean slates, struggling to escape addictions or toxic relationships, only to witness hope devolve into violence. Kraus often employs the phrase "clean slate", rendering it willfully cynical through recurring use. Phrases such as "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They opted for a clean break" recur in the text. At the same time, the author herself appears to be undertaking her individual reinvention, as this presents as a novel form of writing – fact-based, genuinely novelistic. Yet it proves to be laden with the recurring issues and approaches as past novels.

From Chance Novelist to Cult Classic

Kraus was originally an artist who transitioned to writing almost accidentally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, structured as letters to an unreceptive lover, transforming personal female narrative from humiliation into defiance. She continued writing, but the following three engaging and challenging novels did not possess the shock and immediacy that the letter form imparted to the tone of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her role as a renegade artist who had evolved into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was much discussion on housing investments. It makes sense that she now wants to explore new kinds of material, looking outwards to the experiences of others, at a moment when she claims that contemporary political climate makes confessional writing redundant.

Several Eras, Collective Unavoidable Background

The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, encompassing several time periods – each trapped by their backgrounds. We encounter the story of Emma and Jasper, based on her own mother and father, moving from the urban environment to the Connecticut countryside. Then there is the account of Kraus, in the guise of Catt Greene, confronting the late recognition of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her addict husband her husband Paul. And there is the account of a killing of one lost young man by another in a community long abandoned by forward-thinking policies only 80 miles from Catt's cottage in a remote part of Minnesota.

As a reader drawn to refined literature of the kind Kraus often avoids, I was enchanted by the literary tone of the initial segment.

As a reader drawn to honed writing of the style that Kraus usually avoids, I was captivated by the storytelling approach of the first section. There is a fresh level of observation that allows space for minutiae, like the bucket that the young Catt frees from the ice at the start of the story, assisted by her adored dad. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she declares; "a lovely toy", he answers, "the ambiguous meanings of language circulating in their speech like hard candy". The author narrates Emma's story with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not hers, exactly."

Frustration and Disruption

I was bound to become frustrated when I expected this new voice could continue through the novel. Kraus notes here that she resents the satisfaction audiences such as myself have derived from I Love Dick; she's devoted to fragmentation, to the untidy aesthetics she has in common with her hero author Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her earlier works reasserts itself in the middle section. Catt Greene is working on refurbishing multiple decrepit residences in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while traveling between two different states, unable to aid Paul curb his addiction. She experiences powerlessness as her spouse moves between poorly supported positions as an recovery specialist in a society driven by the anger and fear that powers a political win. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt being cancelled on social media, her professional designation altered from "author" to "property owner" on Wikipedia. Kraus still seems to be overly concerned about this. In a moment she states that she's investigating the murder so that before exiting the region, "she could potentially understand something about an the nation that her Twitter detractors would fail to comprehend, would overlook entirely".

The Homicide Account

Then we reach to the murder itself – and the eponymous day experienced by the murdered individual with the murderer and his companions. Kraus has great source material, and reconstructs step by step what occurred as Brandon came to see Brittney after meeting her on an app where she sold sex pictures. He was hoping for sex but seems affably to have spent the day in the company of her associates, mooching around getting his car mended and covering the cost of food and substances, before being shot by Brittney's boyfriend a man named Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has often been institutionalized for fits of anger.

Preoccupation and Open Ends

The protagonist becomes fixated by the story, and I was fascinated by the way that her twin drives towards responsible documentation and daring boundary-pushing tussle in this section. However, I would have preferred her to delve deeper into her individual preoccupations here. The compelling persona is Brittney, who gains dimension partly through Catt seeing herself in her – another bright, bullied girl spiraling out of control in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus tells us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in jail, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The whole section feels curiously unresolved, to the extent that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par