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The new book centers on characters pursuing clean slates, struggling to escape substance abuse or toxic relationships, only to witness hope devolve into aggression. The author repeatedly invokes the phrase "fresh start", transforming it into deliberately jaded through its repetitions. Phrases such as "He aimed to start over" and "They opted for a clean break" appear throughout the story. At the same time, the author herself is embarking on her individual reinvention, because this seems a different type of work – fact-based, authentically narrative. However it proves to be laden with the recurring issues and approaches as her previous works.

From Unplanned Author to Cult Classic

Kraus began as an visual artist who became a writer unintentionally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, structured as epistles to an unresponsive love interest, elevating intimate women's literature from self-debasement into assassination. She persisted as a writer, but the next trio of compelling and abrasive novels did not possess the shock and immediacy that the correspondence format infused into the tone of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her role as a maverick maker who had become a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was considerable focus on housing investments. It is logical that she presently aims to experiment with new kinds of material, looking outwards to other people's stories, at a moment when she states that current political era renders personal narrative redundant.

Several Eras, One Unescapable Past

The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, encompassing three generations – all unable to escape their pasts. We encounter the tale of Emma and Jasper, representations of Kraus's parents, moving from the urban environment to rural Connecticut. There is the story of Kraus herself, in the persona of protagonist Catt Greene, confronting the belated success of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her substance-dependent spouse her husband Paul. Finally the story of the murder of one directionless individual by another in a town mostly forsaken by forward-thinking policies only a brief drive from Catt's rural residence in rural Minnesota.

For this reader drawn to honed writing of the sort Kraus typically rejects, I was enchanted by the narrative style of the first section.

Being a reader drawn to precise prose of the kind that the author often disregards, I was seduced by the storytelling approach of the first section. It exhibits a fresh level of observation that accommodates small details, like the pail that the youthful Catt dislodges from ice at the beginning of the narrative, helped by her cherished parent. "Look, an ice toy!" she declares; "a great plaything", he answers, "the nuanced interpretations of terms circulating in their speech like sweet treats". The author narrates the tale of Emma with interest and closeness. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not entirely her own."

Letdown and Fragmentation

I was bound to become frustrated when I hoped this different style could persist to the end. The author states here that she resents the enjoyment readers like me have taken from I Love Dick; she's committed to disruption, to the untidy aesthetics she shares with her hero Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her past books returns in the middle section. Catt is trying to renovate multiple decrepit residences in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while traveling between two different states, unsuccessful in assisting her husband manage his alcohol use. She feels helpless as her spouse transitions between poorly supported positions as an recovery specialist in a society fueled by the anger and fear that drives an electoral success. A significant portion discusses about Catt's social media ostracism on Twitter, her listed profession modified from "author" to "property owner" on the online encyclopedia. She still gives the impression to be overly concerned about this. In a moment she says that she's researching the homicide so that before leaving Minnesota, "she may grasp something about an the United States that her online critics would be unable to grasp, would overlook entirely".

The Murder Narrative

Then we reach to the murder itself – and the eponymous day spent by the murdered individual with the killer and his companions. Kraus has compelling foundational content, and reconstructs step by step what transpired when Brandon came to visit Brittney after connecting via an application where she marketed explicit images. He was hoping for sex but appears congenially to have passed the day in the company of her associates, loitering having his vehicle repaired and paying for snacks and drugs, before being murdered by her romantic interest Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has often been institutionalized for aggressive outbursts.

Fascination and Incompletion

Catt gets obsessed by the narrative, and I was fascinated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards ethical reporting and audacious rule-breaking wrestle in this part. But I'd have liked her to go further into her individual preoccupations here. The most interesting character is the character Brittney, who comes alive partly through Catt seeing herself in her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman going off the rails in a struggling, neglected community. The author informs us that Catt converses with Brittney in jail, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. The complete segment feels curiously unresolved, to the extent that her narrative ends almost mid-par