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This latest work is populated with individuals pursuing clean slates, attempting to leave behind drugs or toxic relationships, only to see hope turn into conflict. The author repeatedly invokes the phrase "fresh start", rendering it deliberately jaded through recurring use. Sentences like "He aimed to start over" and "They opted for a clean break" are scattered across the narrative. And yet, she seems to be making her personal new beginning, because this presents as a different type of work – documentarian, authentically narrative. However it reveals itself to be filled with the same dilemmas and aesthetics as earlier books.

From Unplanned Author to Cult Classic

Kraus was originally an artist who entered the literary world unintentionally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, made up of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, elevating confessional female writing from abjection into rebellion. She continued writing, but the three subsequent fascinating and rebarbative novels did not possess the shock and immediacy that the letter form infused into the tone of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her role as a renegade artist who had become a major property owner, so there was much discussion on property transactions. It is logical that she currently desires to experiment with different types of content, turning outward to external narratives, at a moment when she states that contemporary political climate makes confessional writing redundant.

Three Generations, One Unescapable Past

The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, spanning multiple eras – all unable to escape their backgrounds. There is the story of characters Emma and Jasper, representations of Kraus's parents, moving from the New York borough to the Connecticut countryside. Additionally the narrative of the author, in the guise of Catt Greene, confronting the late recognition of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse her husband Paul. Finally the story of the murder of one directionless individual by another in a community long abandoned by progressive politics only a short distance from Catt's cottage in rural Minnesota.

For this reader attracted to polished prose of the sort Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was seduced by the narrative style of the first section.

As someone who reads who appreciates precise prose of the style that Kraus herself often disregards, I was seduced by the literary tone of the first section. There is a novel degree of detail that allows space for trivial aspects, like the bucket that the young Catt dislodges from ice at the start of the story, assisted by her cherished parent. "I found an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a great plaything", he replies, "the ambiguous meanings of language circulating in their speech like hard candy". The author narrates the tale of Emma with curiosity and intimacy. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not precisely her dream."

Disappointment and Disjunction

I was destined to be disappointed when I wished this fresh tone could last out the book. The author states here that she is annoyed by the satisfaction those who appreciate polished prose have derived from I Love Dick; she's committed to disjunction, to the untidy aesthetics she echoes from her inspiration Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her past books returns in the second segment. The protagonist is working on refurbishing 36 run-down apartments in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while shuttling between two different states, unsuccessful in assisting Paul control his drinking. She experiences powerlessness as Paul cycles through low-resource employment as an recovery specialist in a environment propelled by the rage and anxiety that powers Trump's victory. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt being cancelled on Twitter, her listed profession modified from "author" to "real estate holder" on a reference site. The author still appears to invest excessive emotion about this. On one occasion she states that she's investigating the murder so that before departing the state, "she may grasp something about an the United States that her online critics would not understand, would not even see".

The Killing Story

So then we come to the actual killing – and the referenced day spent by the victim with the murderer and his companions. The author possesses great source material, and details moment by moment what transpired when the victim Brandon came to see Brittney after meeting her on an app where she offered adult photos. He sought a sexual encounter but seems amiably to have occupied the day with her companions, wandering about getting his car mended and covering the cost of food and substances, before being shot by Brittney's partner Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has frequently been hospitalised for fits of anger.

Obsession and Unfinished Business

The protagonist becomes fixated by the story, and I was intrigued by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards ethical reporting and reckless transgression wrestle in this part. However, I would have preferred her to explore more thoroughly her personal fixations here. The most interesting character is Brittney herself, who comes alive in part due to the protagonist's connection to her – another bright, bullied girl derailing in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus tells us that Catt speaks to Brittney in prison, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The whole section feels oddly unfinished, to the extent that her narrative ends almost mid-par