Paint It Black

Customer Reviews

• "With Flowers and My Love Both Never to Come Back"  Jun 14, 2008 (7 of 7 found this helpful)

  Paint it Black was a much-anticipated book after my love affair with White Oleander. I still believe in Janet Fitch's ability to weave a tale that is mesmerizing and her endings are perhaps, in my mind, her greatest strength. Although I was at least a 1/3 of the way through the novel before it really captured my soul; when it finally took root, I was a captive until the end.
  
  There was a lot in this book including the language, the sexual escapades, the drugs and the squalor of the lifestyles that did not immediately appeal to me. There were even times I felt some of the language or sexual descriptions went over the top. But, on reflection, that's what this entire novel does. It goes over the top and allows us, the reader, to peer into the dark underbelly of a lifestyle we may never otherwise encounter or wish to encounter. It's dysfunctional characters ring with authenticity, the abrasive language is all too real, and the plot goes down like poison.
  
  Again, Fitch has managed to construct a startlingly original tale with fresh characters that crackle with their own dysfunctions and humanity. Fitch has a very good handle on writing about young women and the mother figures in their lives, as well as the love interests who permeate her stories. This novel again touches on the unequal power struggle between two women. Meredith is older. rich and famous, while Josie is young and barely making it in the squalor of the punked-out underbelly of the 80s of LA. Both are in love with one man--Meredith's son Michael; both feel they alone know him, yet ultimately neither of them can save nor possess him. The more Josie learns about Michael after his death, the more she feels betrayed and confused. But instead of burying her confusion in something beautiful as Meredith does with her concert tour, (Beauty said there was something more than just one f____ thing after another." ) Josie allows time to rest for a moment and stop all that senseless motion and as she retraces Michael's last days she takes on his mantle, uncovers her own truth at Twentynine Palms and begins to live again.
  
  Fitch proves herself a master manipulator as she gracefully twists the plot and characters in versatile ways that will keep you wondering what the ending will bring. It ultimately had me cheering as Josie chose the right path for herself, instead of taking the easy way out that may have tempted a lesser soul.
  
  Fitch paints the tragedy of loss with such pain and sadness that you can literally feel what the characters must have endured, even if you can't picture yourself in the setting. How does Josie keep Michael alive--well she attempts to keep Michael alive by believing and rescuing someone else who is in a great deal of pain and she becomes for Wilma what Michael has been for her--a muse?? Perhaps.
  
  It was hard for me not to compare this book to White Oleander, which remains one of my favorites, but this work definitely stands on its own and is worth the read. It is a finely structured story of madness and love, darkness and eccentricity, love and friendship, in an atypical LA setting that I've not seen much written about in quite this way. This book is dark, but it brings light. It's sad but it brings hope. It was definitely thought provoking and I would highly recommend it to readers.
  

• Paint it Black Disappoints   Apr 3, 2007 (7 of 7 found this helpful)

  Paint it Black is the second novel from Janet Fitch. It concerns one Josie Tyrell, a twenty year old model and actor from the wrong side of the tracks who falls in love with Michael Loewry, artist, Harvard drop-out, and son of a world-famous concert pianist. Michael commits suicide, and the entire novel concerns the fall out as Josie copes with his death and becomes involved with his wildly moody mother Meredith, pianist extraordinaire. Meredith hates Josie and blames her for her son's death, and their relationship is strange, needy, and compulsive.
  
  Fitch is a gifted writer capable of wresting great beauty from the English language. Unfortunately, this book did not have the depth of characterization found in White Oleander, her first (and quite fabulous) book. The pace is very slow, the characters are not as interesting, and very little happens other than Josie's attempt to deal with her boyfriend's suicide.
  
  Fitch is very interested in artists and their lives, and Josie and Michael are both budding artists. She is clearly a cultured writer, but this often comes across as pretentious, something I noted other reviewers having an issue with. While I think PIB is worth reading because of Fitch's skills as a writer, I don't think it comes near to the wonder that was White Oleander. In comparison to that book, which was so often moving and profound, PIB seems a poor second, a sophomoric effort from a writer capable of much more.

• of course it's depressing...  Mar 6, 2007 (9 of 10 found this helpful)

  ..the person she loved just committed suicide. I wonder why anyone bothered complaining that the book was so sad. That aside, I enjoyed this book. I think it started off a little bit slow and it felt to me like maybe the author was having somewhat of a hard time finding the voice of her character in the beginning. I also noticed that in the beginning, there were LOTS of musical references. Not just "she picked up a record" or something, but long lists of band names. I was minorly annoyed by it, but that fell away pretty quickly.
  
  I do have another small complaint. It really bothered me that Josie called smirnoff "smirny" or "voddy," and cigarettes "ciggies". I think it was supposed to show that she felt a strange affection for the substances, but it still irritated me.
  
  **minor spoiler ahead**
  overall, it was a good book. I loved how Meredith's character sort of forced Josie to face everything that happened, to make decisions and ultimately choose not to run away like she had before, but to start taking care of and learning about herself. I liked the way in which Josie came to her revelation at the end of the book, and the hint of new beginning. Josie's narrative (albeit third person, not first person) stuck in my head for a few days after I read it. That, to me, is a sign of a well-written character.
  
  Don't not read this book if you're depressed-- just don't read this book if you can't handle a realistic story about an emotional journey in the aftermath of suicide.
  
  

• Disappointing sophomore novel  Feb 26, 2007 (13 of 16 found this helpful)

  Reading Janet Fitch's disappointing sophomore novel is much like reading a term paper written hours before its due date. The flowery prose, repetitive descriptions and excessive use of metaphors and similes do not mask the fact that the story is still empty, lacking substance or depth.
  
  "Paint it Black" tells the story of 19-year-old protagonist, Josie Tyrell who deals with her live-in boyfriend Michael's suicide. Michael, a depressed artist, shoots himself in a hotel, leaving Josie behind. Josie develops a love-hate relationship with Michael's mother, Meredith, a famous pianist. The two women, despite their differences and marred past, find a common bond in being the only people who truly feel the void left at Michael's passing.
  
  Like she demonstrated in her popular and critically acclaimed first novel, "White Oleander," Fitch is a talented, eloquent writer. Sentences like, "Her headache wound around her forehead, a crown of tequila thorns," are present all throughout the novel, painting a vivid picture. However, many of Fitch's descriptions, are repeated incessantly. Josie, the protagonist, is described as having "bleached hair" with "dark roots," wearing a "yellow, fake fur coat," driving a " rattly blue Falcon" and smoking her "Gauloise cigarettes." After the hundredth page, I was well aware of her appearance and habits and found further redundancies to be a way to fill space rather than examples of imaginative writing. Similar repetitive descriptions are given of Meredith and the house Josie and Michael shared.
  
  Furthermore, the long, complex sentences do not mask the lack of plot and character development. What story-telling there is seems muddled, unclear and inconclusive. This is especially true with Meredith. Fitch attempted to create a mysterious and enigmatic woman whose true character was indecipherable to either Josie or myself. However, at the end of the book, Meredith's character seemed more unresolved and incomplete than intentionally cryptic and was very frustrating to me as a reader.
  
  While Josie comes slightly more full circle, I still found her character resolution to be shallow. After enduring her perpetual mourning for the greater part of the novel, her coming to terms is too quick to be believable. Also, Josie's character did not strike a sympathetic note with me, especially when compared with Astrid, the compelling protagonist from Fitch's first novel. Josie's vulgar mouth, alcoholic tendencies and constant referral to vodka as "voddy" and cigarettes as "ciggies" left me annoyed rather than feeling compassion towards her.
  
  The most developed character is, coincidentally, the one the reader never meets: Michael. Despite first being introduced as a stiff corpse, through memories, Michael comes across as Fitch's one complete character. Stuck in between the blue-blooded life of his mother and the bohemian, starving artists' world he shared with Josie, Michael chooses the ultimate out, leaving people, specifically the two women who loved and thought they knew him best, to pick up the pieces. Fitch achieves in accurately portraying Michael as internally tortured and yet provides the reader with a sufficient, thought-out resolution.
  
  That same complete finality cannot be found at the end of the novel. The conclusion seemed harried and abrupt. When I turned the final page, I was surprised to see it was indeed the last one. Perhaps realizing her descriptive-laden story was like a meringue - fluffy and pleasing to the eye yet ultimately unfulfilling - Fitch brought up God, calling Him "just the man behind the curtain, working His cranks and levers," and Michael's previously unknown need for a Christ-like Savior in his increasingly desperate life. If present throughout the entire novel, these religious references could have made the book more meaningful. Instead, like that hastily finished term paper, they ca

• Not bad, but...  Oct 12, 2006 (10 of 12 found this helpful)

  Fitch is a fine writer with a distinctive style and the ability to explore dark psychological corners fearlessly and insightfully. Yet this novel left me flat. The relationship between the two main female characters seems recycled from her previous work. The pace is tedious and as a reader I felt sympathetic yet impatient with Josie's journey. Beneath the surface of the (sometimes) well crafted metaphors and alternative setting lies a fairly thin story of uninteresting characters.