Paint It Black: A Novel by Janet Fitch, Jennifer Jason Leigh (Narrated by), Jennifer Jason Leigh (Read by)

From the Publisher

Josie Tyrell, art model, teen runaway, and denizen of LA's 1980 punk rock scene, finds a chance at real love with art student Michael Faraday. A Harvard dropout and son of a renowned pianist, Michael introduces her to his spiritual quest and a world of sophistication she had never dreamed existed. But when she receives a call from the Los Angeles County Coroner, asking her to identify her lover's dead body, her bright dreams all turn to black.

As Josie searches for the key to understanding his death, she finds herself both repelled and attracted to Michael's pianist mother, Meredith, who holds Josie responsible for her son's torment. Soon, the two women find themselves drawn into a twisted relationship reflecting equal parts distrust and blind need.
Passionate, wounded, fiercely alive, Josie Tyrell walks the brink of her own destruction as she fights to discover the meaning of Michael's death. With the luxurious prose and emotional intensity that are her hallmarks, Janet Fitch has written a spellbinding new novel about love, betrayal, and the possibility of transcendence.

The Washington Post - Chris Bohjalian

As she did with White Oleander, Fitch has given us a courageous and interesting young woman who handles the bad cards she has been dealt with grace and resolve. No one, not even Cinderella, knows better than Josie Tyrell that life isn't fair -- and no one, despite some very long odds, seems more likely to transcend the role of victim and succeed with or without her fairy-tale prince.

Publishers Weekly

Leigh's nuanced, intuitive narration makes Fitch's novel even more powerful. Leigh brings out all the conflicting emotions and undercurrents of teenage punk rocker Josie as she struggles to deal with the suicide of her talented but emotionally tormented lover Michael. Leigh invests simple repeated lines like "Michael was never coming back" with different emotions each times: first she's trying to wrap her mind around the unthinkable, an urgent sense of panic, a burst of anger at the unfairness of life and at Michael for abandoning her, and finally a desolate sob of despair and loss. She ably evokes all the emotions of grief-the numbness and feeling of unreality, the rage, the sense of hopelessness, the longing for solace and normalcy. When reading Josie's dialogue, Leigh speaks in the low, wary tone of a girl who's been kicked around by life too many times. In contrast, she reads Michael's mother, Meredith, in confident, melodramatic, upper-class tones, her voice turning sinuous and seductive as she tries to manipulate Josie. In Leigh's capable hands, Fitch's compelling psychological character study resonates even more strongly on audio. Simultaneous release with the Little, Brown hardcover (Reviews, June 19). (Sept.) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

Beauty and its pretenders prowl around the edges of Fitch's long-awaited second novel. Just as she did so masterfully in White Oleander, Fitch portrays the world of a young woman who is searching for a way to live after being dealt an incredibly lousy hand. Opting for the antithesis of beauty, Josie Tyrell exists within the punk club scene of 1980s Los Angeles, and, unfortunately, she finds familiar terrain in that subculture's harshness and brutal sexuality. Not until she meets Michael Faraday, a child of affluence and privilege, does Josie know that there is such a thing as true beauty in the world. He teaches her about the beauty of the night sky; of music, art, and poetry. But his obsession becomes his undoing as he cannot find enough of this transcendent beauty to protect him from his demons. Giving in to the inescapable lure of his family's ghosts, he commits suicide. Michael was the sole source of light for Josie and his tortured, tortuous mother: now both women engage in a dangerous struggle to survive in a world of darkness. As Josie unravels the story of Michael's despair, she becomes able to move from self-destruction to self-determination. Suspenseful, compelling, and superbly crafted, this work shows Fitch once again taking the art of writing to its highest level. Highly recommended for all contemporary fiction collections. [See Prepub Alert, LJ 5/15/06.]-Susanne Wells, P.L. of Cincinnati and Hamilton Cty. Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

Bereavement, alienation and survivor's anger are the legacy bequeathed to the stunned protagonist of Californian Fitch's somber second novel. Josie Tyrell is a 20-year-old artist's model, sometime-actress and substance-abuser whose already chaotic life in L.A.'s underground artistic environs is further unsettled when she's notified that her boyfriend, Michael Faraday, has killed himself in a rundown motel. As she did in her Oprah-selected White Oleander (1999), Fitch structures this as a contest between two determined women: embittered Josie (who's intent on learning why her rapturous life with Michael, a struggling artist, wasn't enough for him), and Michael's mother, Meredith Loewy, a celebrated concert pianist and smothering matriarch whose attitude toward Josie vacillates between homicidal resentment and almost sisterly empathy. This backward-and-forward momentum at least varies Fitch's numbing concentration on Josie's emotional outrage, as does a subplot involving an independent movie in production (whose cluelessly smug director envisions it as "Bergman meets Hitchcock in Antonioni's unmade bed"), a preening sex machine who calls himself Nick Nitro and a handsome young actor who worms his way into Josie's bed without ever eliciting a response from her. But the changing relationship of Meredith and Josie is central, and the story almost catches fire as Fitch peels away successive layers of pretense to reveal each woman's hidden story (Meredith's history of losing other loved ones before Michael, Josie's uncomfortable memories of her white-trash family and sexually threatening older brother). Yet it wallows in self-pity and indignation, even in the climactic pages, where Josiebelieves she knows Meredith's real secret, returns to that motel and acknowledges the truth about Michael, which she has unsuccessfully repressed: "He loved me, but he hated himself more."Vivid writing here and there, but Josie is a dull character, and the story is a real downer.

Product Details

• ISBN: 0641930828
  
• ISBN-13: 9780641930829
• Format: Compact Disc
• Publisher: Hachette Audio
• Pub. Date: October 2007
• Edition Description: Bargain
• Sales Rank: 18,737