Paint It Black: A Novel - Hardcover

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Janet Fitch's first novel, White Oleander, a #1 bestseller and Oprah's Book Club selection, has been translated into 24 languages and was made into a feature film. A native of Los Angeles, Fitch currently teaches fiction writing in the Master of Professional Writing Program at the University of Southern California.

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Starred Review. Fitch follows her bestselling debut, White Oleander, by revisiting the insidious effects of a powerful, narcissistic mother on an only child. Michael Faraday is a Harvard dropout who paints in the L.A. art world of 1981; his suicide happens a few pages in, and sets the stage for a Fitch's masterful shifts in time and perspective. Josie Tyrell, an artist's model and denizen of the punk rock, had an intense relationship with Michael, but never managed to free him from his mother, renowned concert pianist Meredith Loewy, who moves in a bleak, loveless world of wealth and privilege. Yet their very different loves for Michael bring about a surprising alliance between the imperious Meredith and Josie, a white trash escapee whose inborn grace, style and sense of self sustain her—along with art, music and alcohol. The two find unexpected comfort in each other's shared loss, allowing Fitch to contrast the inner and outer resources of women whose lives couldn't be more different, and to flash back deeply into their histories. Fitch excels at painting a negative personality with sure-handed depth and fairness, and her prose penetrates the inner lives of the two with immediacy and bite. In Josie, she has created an indomitable young woman whose pluck and growing self-awareness beautifully offset Meredith's emptiness. Their relationship transforms a big cliché—the artist's suicide—into a page-turning psychodrama. (Sept.)
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Critics can't help comparing Janet Fitch's highly anticipated second novel with her best-selling debut and Oprah's Book Club selection, White Oleander (1999). Comparisons seem apt; both novels feature an intriguing young woman dealt a bad hand; vivid portraits of Los Angeles; depressing themes; and raw, lush writing. However, the similarities end here, since reviewers agree that Paint It Black almost—but perhaps not quite—measures up to White Oleander. Fitch does an admirable job of exploring Michael's questioning of his life, Josie's despair, and the pair's ambivalent relationship with his domineering mother. Most lauded Fitch's exceptional depiction of the city's "high" and "low" life. A few critics cited sagging plots and poor secondary character development. In the end, however, Paint It Black exhibits Fitch's ample talents.

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