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This latest work is populated with protagonists seeking clean slates, attempting to leave behind substance abuse or harmful partnerships, only to find hope curdling into conflict. The author frequently uses the phrase "clean slate", making it deliberately jaded through constant reiteration. Examples include "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They opted for a clean break" recur in the narrative. At the same time, Kraus herself is embarking on her individual reinvention, since this presents as a new kind of book – observational, truly literary. But then it reveals itself to be laden with the same dilemmas and aesthetics as earlier books.

From Chance Novelist to Cult Classic

Kraus was originally an artist who became a writer almost accidentally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, made up of letters to an unreceptive lover, transforming personal female narrative from self-debasement into rebellion. She persisted as a writer, but the following three compelling and abrasive novels did not possess the impact and rawness that the letter form imparted to the voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her identity as a nonconformist creator who had turned into a extensive real estate holder, so there was considerable focus on real estate deals. It follows that she presently aims to experiment with different types of content, looking outwards to the experiences of others, at a period in which she claims that contemporary political climate renders personal narrative redundant.

Several Eras, One Unescapable Past

The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, spanning multiple eras – none able to break free from their histories. The book includes the narrative about a couple named Emma and Jasper, versions of the author's parents, relocating from the urban environment to rural Connecticut. Then there is the account of Kraus, in the persona of protagonist Catt Greene, reckoning with the belated success of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her addict husband a man named Paul. Finally the account of a killing of one lost young man by another in a locality largely deserted by forward-thinking policies only a short distance from Catt's cottage in a remote part of Minnesota.

For this reader fond of refined literature of the type Kraus often avoids, I was enchanted by the novelistic voice of the initial segment.

Being a reader who appreciates precise prose of the kind that the author tends to eschew, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the initial part. It possesses a new quality of attentiveness that allows space for small details, like the bucket that the youthful Catt pries out of frozen water at the opening of the book, assisted by her adored dad. "I found an ice toy!" she says; "a nice toy", he answers, "the ambiguous meanings of language circulating in their speech like hard candy". She tells Emma's narrative with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not entirely her own."

Frustration and Disruption

I was destined to be disappointed when I wished this different style could last out the book. Kraus says here that she dislikes the enjoyment readers like me have derived from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disjunction, to the messy artistic approach she has in common with her hero writer Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her past books comes back in the middle section. Catt Greene is working on refurbishing three dozen dilapidated units in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while traveling between the Midwest and the West Coast, unable to aid her husband curb his addiction. She feels helpless as Paul moves between underfunded jobs as an substance abuse counselor in a environment driven by the rage and anxiety that powers Trump's victory. There are several pages about Catt being cancelled on Twitter, her professional designation altered from "author" to "property owner" on a reference site. Kraus still seems 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 could potentially understand something about an the nation that her social media opponents would be unable to grasp, would not even perceive".

The Homicide Account

Thus we arrive to the actual killing – and the titular day experienced by the deceased with the perpetrator and his friends. Kraus utilizes excellent raw material, and reconstructs step by step what happened when Brandon came to meet Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she offered adult photos. He anticipated intimacy but appears congenially to have passed the day alongside her friends, mooching around fixing his automobile and funding treats and narcotics, before being murdered by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has frequently been hospitalised for fits of anger.

Preoccupation and Open Ends

The protagonist becomes fixated by the narrative, and I found myself captivated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards ethical reporting and daring boundary-pushing tussle in this section. However, I would have preferred her to go further into her own obsessions here. The most interesting character is Brittney herself, who becomes vivid partly through Catt's identification with her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual going off the rails in a troubled, forgotten town. The author informs us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in detention, but she fails to enact these dialogues. This entire part feels oddly unfinished, to the extent that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par