Paint it Black

by: Janet Fitch

Published by: Little, Brown and Company (September 18, 2006 Release)

Reviewed by Anne-Gigi Chan

Twenty-year-old Josie Tyrell came to Los Angeles a few years ago on a trip from Bakersfield--and never returned. She was an art model and occasional actress submerged in the punk rock scene of the early 80s. She thought she finally found true love when she met art student Michael Faraday, a privileged young man from the 'other side of town.' Michael was a Harvard dropout and the son of world-famous pianist, Meredith Loewy. He had his reasons for rejecting the world he came from and Josie was happy to have finally found someone who was able to appreciate her true self.

Josie's world came crumbling down the day she received the call from the LA County Coroner asking her to identify Michael's body. He had taken his own life and his body was found in a remote motel hours away from where he was supposed to be.

Michael's death drew Josie into a complicated and twisted relationship with his father Meredith, which was full of distrust and repulsion as well as interdependence and attraction.

As Josie struggled to understand her lover's death, she also found out the secrets and lies about the man she thought she knew. Josie eventually came to a turning point where she either accepted the truth as it was and moved on a stronger person, or swept it under the carpet and continued to run away from it the rest of her life.

Janet Fitch did it again with this extraordinary and intense story about passion, love, betrayal and despair. I was as eager as Josie was to find out what pushed Michael to end his own life, and it was riveting to see the progression of the relationship between Josie and Meredith--which was dynamic and, at times, unpredictable.

The story and the plot aside, Fitch is a master choreographer of words, and her strong and powerful prose allowed me to experience every raw and gut-wrenching emotion that Josie was going through. This was an extremely intense book that could be emotionally draining to read at times; however, it was worth every second I spent on it. I highly recommend this book to any one who is into good writing.

Armchair Interviews agrees totally.