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This latest work centers on individuals chasing after fresh starts, attempting to leave behind addictions or toxic relationships, only to witness hope devolve into conflict. Kraus often employs the phrase "clean slate", rendering it deliberately jaded through recurring use. Phrases such as "He could make a fresh start" and "They opted for a clean break" are scattered across the narrative. Meanwhile, the author herself is embarking on her own fresh start, as this appears a different type of work – fact-based, truly literary. Yet it proves to be filled with the recurring issues and approaches as past novels.

From Accidental Writer to Renowned Book

Kraus began as an artist who transitioned to writing unintentionally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, which was composed of letters to an unreceptive lover, elevating personal female narrative from abjection into rebellion. She kept producing books, but the following three fascinating and rebarbative novels missed the power and directness that the correspondence format infused into the voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her role as a maverick maker who had become a major property owner, so there was much discussion on property transactions. It makes sense that she now wants to experiment with fresh narrative sources, directing her gaze to other people's stories, at a moment when she asserts that contemporary political climate turns intimate literature redundant.

Multiple Generations, One Unescapable Past

The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, covering three generations – each trapped by their pasts. We encounter the narrative about characters Emma and Jasper, versions of her own mother and father, moving from the Bronx to rural Connecticut. Additionally the narrative of the author, in the character of Catt Greene, grappling with the belated success of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her addict husband her husband Paul. The third thread involves the account of a killing of one directionless individual by another in a community largely deserted by liberal ideals only a brief drive from the protagonist's home in rural Minnesota.

As a reader drawn to polished prose of the sort Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was enchanted by the narrative style of the first section.

Being a reader drawn to crafted language of the kind that the author often disregards, I was won over by the literary tone of the initial part. It possesses a fresh level of observation that makes room for small details, like the pail that the young Catt dislodges from ice at the start of the story, helped by her beloved father. "I found an ice toy!" she declares; "a lovely toy", he answers, "the nuanced interpretations of terms rolling around in their mouths like piece candy". She tells Emma's narrative with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not hers, exactly."

Frustration and Disruption

I was bound to become frustrated when I hoped this different style could persist to the end. Kraus notes here that she is annoyed by the enjoyment those who appreciate polished prose have gotten from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disjunction, to the messy artistic approach she shares with her inspiration writer Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her earlier works reasserts itself in the second segment. Catt Greene is attempting to do up three dozen dilapidated units in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while moving between two different states, unsuccessful in assisting Paul curb his addiction. She experiences powerlessness as Paul transitions between low-resource employment as an recovery specialist in a society fueled by the hostility and dread that underpins Trump's victory. A significant portion discusses about Catt being cancelled on Twitter, her listed profession modified from "writer" to "landlord" on Wikipedia. The author still appears to be overly concerned about this. At one point she says that she's looking into the killing so that before departing the state, "she may grasp something about an the nation that her Twitter detractors would not understand, would overlook entirely".

The Killing Story

Then we reach to the homicide in question – and the titular day experienced by the murdered individual with the murderer and his associates. The author possesses compelling foundational content, and knows hour by hour what transpired when the victim Brandon came to visit Brittney after connecting via an application where she marketed explicit images. He was hoping for sex but seems amiably to have occupied the day with her companions, loitering getting his car mended and funding treats and narcotics, before being killed by gunfire by her romantic interest a man named Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has frequently been hospitalised for violent rage.

Obsession and Unfinished Business

Catt gets obsessed by the narrative, and I found myself captivated by the way that her twin drives towards accurate chronicling and audacious rule-breaking clash in this segment. However, I would have preferred her to delve deeper into her own obsessions here. The standout figure is Brittney, 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 converses with Brittney in jail, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The whole section feels oddly unfinished, to the point that her narrative ends almost mid-par