Paint It Black

Paint It Black

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3.41 of 5 stars 3.41  ·  rating details  ·  6,243 ratings  ·  792 reviews
"A dark, crooked beauty that fulfills all the promise of White Oleander and confirms that Janet Fitch is an artist of the very highest order."--Los Angeles Times Book Review
Josie Tyrell, art model, runaway, and denizen of LA's rock scene finds a chance at real love with Michael Faraday, a Harvard dropout and son of a renowned pianist. But when she receives a call from the...more
387 pages
Published (first published 2006)
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Sara
Jan 15, 2008 Sara rated it 3 of 5 stars  ·  review of another edition Recommends it for: White Oleander fans, L.A. scenesters
I don't care how un-rock n' roll it is to like something Oprah endorsed, White Oleander is one of my favorite books of all time. since I first read it several years ago I'd been waiting and waiting for Janet Fitch to come out with another novel. the concept for Paint It Black excited me, but in the end I wish it was way better.

Fitch clearly saw what worked for her with White Oleander and chose to repeat it. Los Angeles is a character in itself in her novels, and her lyrical, description-heavy pr...more
John
Jun 08, 2007 John rated it 5 of 5 stars  ·  review of another edition Recommends it for: Both those who hate and those who love Oprah
Many students of great literature will never touch Paint It Black, largely due to the lazy assumption that the work of any author singled out by Oprah’s Book Club best belongs in the hands of mawkish stay-at-home mothers. Fitch’s second novel is not sentimental. An artist’s suicide marks the start of the narrative, and it is refreshing how skillfully Fitch handles the tragedy. It is never treated romantically as so much art obfuscates the plain fact that death is a cold period, not an exclamati...more
Toni
Nov 25, 2007 Toni rated it 2 of 5 stars  ·  review of another edition Recommends it for: teenagers, lame punk rockers
Shelves: fiction
At times the writing was lyrical. Fitch showed every aspect I admire in an author, but then it just all went to hell. Josie is worse than an ordinary narrator, she is the very definition of counter-culture. Cheap references to punk rock and substances will get you nowhere, when it comes to keeping the attention of a readers. I hate it when authors mention things casually to try and make themselves and the character seem cold, or in some way used to the ways of the world. The use of the word "Bar...more
Khaya
I give up. I can't finish this book. I struggled for 175 pages, but I just can't do it any more. I expected much more from the author of "White Oleander," especially with reviewers calling it a "page-turner" (Elle Magazine, did we read the same book?) and positive quotes from The Atlantic Monthly, of all things. This reminded me of "Intuition" but much worse, in the sense that the sporadic dialogue and action are interspersed with lengthy descriptive paragraphs about the main character's inner l...more
Amy
I guess that, in light of so many boo's and hissses, I must somehow make an apology for my 5 stars. I don't care about the story. Janet Fitch could write the evening news and I would read it. Maybe the story fell somewhat flat, maybe Josie was a little predictable, but most stories are this way & as I said before, I could care less. The use of language is so very poignant. I would read a paragraph, a chapter if I could, and stop...letting the words saturate, find their mark and, time and aga...more
Emily
Jul 03, 2007 Emily rated it 3 of 5 stars  ·  review of another edition Recommends it for: bleach blondes in LA, Edie Sedgwick fans
Shelves: booksofthepast
After "White Oleander" I fear I expected too much. This book is excellent- well written, interesting, wonderfully structured and well timed- but it reads more like a first novel than "White Oleander" did. The story of a a young art model and indie actress (think Edie Sedgwick minus The Factory and the big budget from home...and minus Andy, too) who loses her lover in a moment of tragedy, "Paint It Black" is elegant and raw, just like Fitch's debut, but it doesn't have the same developed style. I...more
Kim
This book is incredibly powerful...but also incredibly painful to read. It follows the story of Josie Tyrell, a young woman growing up in the late 70s/early 80s and a punk model who falls in love with the intelligent, brooding (you know the type) Michael Faraday, who ends up committing suicide. The book details Josie's process of grief, and how it interacts with Meredith's, Michael's mother's process as well. The detail is incredible and takes you through everything; love, the shame and darkness...more
Kathryn
Well, I'll be very frank: This wasn't as good as White Oleander, which I gave five stars, hands down..

I had wanted to read Paint it Black for several years because I loved White Oleander so much. I was pretty excited when I finally found a copy a few weeks ago.

I'm not sure if I'm just spoiled by Stephen King, whose books I've been divulging in for several months, or if it has to do with the excitement and anticipation of reading Paint it Black. Or maybe my taste in reading has changed since I...more
Jac
I am somewhere between 'abosultely hated it' and 'liked parts of it'. Of the many characters in this book, the already dead boyfriend and his mother are the only strong characters although they are still slightly cartoonish.
The things that made this book awful are the the constant similies - Fitch couldn't describe anything without comparing it to something else. It distracted me from the story and actually made me angry. Also, I felt the language used to show how Josie was low-class and 'count...more
Kristine
uggh. i loved janet fitch's WHITE OLEANDER, and now i am doubting whether my memory actually serves me right. this book is so poorly-written: 400 pages of little more than melodrama, unrealistic scenes, lame dialogue, and unresolved problems. and the sentences themselves infuriate me. here is an example of what i think fitch meant to be a powerful ending to chapter 20, to demonstrate how the main character misses her dead boyfriend:

"She lay on the couch for the rest of the morning, like some cra...more
Katelyn
Jan 12, 2008 Katelyn rated it 3 of 5 stars  ·  review of another edition Recommends it for: anyone who wants to reminisce about "the scene"
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.
Tracie
I hated this book. It was such a huge disappointment. I loved White Oleander and this book was such a far car from White Oleander. The main reason I didn't like it was due to the main character, Josie. She wasn't likable, she wasn't all that interesting and if she gets interesting...I wouldn't know because half way through the book, I quit. If you can't get to the point by the half-point, then I'm abandoning ship. Extremely disappointing novel.

Another thing, I couldn't figure out why Josie like...more
David Jay
This book was such a huge disappointment to me. I adored "White Oleander" and was thrilled when Fitch wrote a second novel. It has similiar themes (teen girl in Los Angeles, major life changes after a murder/suicide at the beginning of the book, intense, mentally ill mother who is beautiful, powerful, famous) but "White Oleander" was so beautifully written and really transfixing. This book was just boring. I had trouble believing that it was written by the same person. There were some memorable...more
liz
Not much of any developement in this story. Its about a punk chick whose artist boyfriend commits suicide. It was sad and depressing and never got better or worse. I was expecting so much more from this book but I felt like I just read the same thing over and over again. It was long and could have been summed up in about a quarter of its length. I kept waiting for something interesting to happen between the boyfriend's mother and the girl, but I got nothing. Both the mother and the girlfriend we...more
Jeni Pandolfi
May 22, 2007 Jeni Pandolfi rated it 2 of 5 stars  ·  review of another edition Recommends it for: gossip queens
This book was recommended by my room mate, and she has very good taste, however this one I would not suggest to anyone.
The story does have its high points, Meredith's character is fantastically drawn out, and Michael's demise told through interactions with the women in his life is very engaging. However, Josie the protagonist, is a predictable 20 year old outcast. Put into an atypical situation she and handles it exactly how a "wounded" teen would. She washes down pills with a lot of alcohol an...more
Kate
Mar 04, 2009 Kate rated it 1 of 5 stars  ·  review of another edition Recommends it for: ppl who love LA and CA, ppl who appreciate LOTS of repetition and painstaking detail
Shelves: 1980-s, family, punk-rock, la
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.
Chelsea
Aug 22, 2007 Chelsea rated it 1 of 5 stars  ·  review of another edition Recommends it for: No One
HORRIBLE---- =(
Don't waste your time!!!
Kellie
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.
Rosie
I finally finished Paint It Black by Janet Fitch. I feel like it took me FOREVER to finish reading this because it was such a snoozer. I really liked her first novel, White Oleander, so when I saw this book on the bargain table at Barnes & Noble I thought I would like it just as much. Nope. My final verdict is slow moving and just ok. At the beginning of the story, Josie Tyrell (the main character), needs to go ID the body of her boyfriend, Micheal, after he kills himself. The story goes on...more
Ciara
Dec 24, 2008 Ciara rated it 2 of 5 stars  ·  review of another edition Recommends it for: people who want to be desperately sad, people who will read anything about punks & i mean anything
Shelves: read-in-2008
this book seriously, seriously depressed me. the protaganist is a cool, sub-cultural, punk girl who lives in the canyons in los angeles. i think she is also a model. she has a cool, mysterious, sweet, moody painter boyfriend who comes from an incredibly wealthy family full of musical geniuses. one day the boyfriend says he has to house-sit at his mom's place because she's off to europe to do a few piano concerts. but he actually drives to a motel in the desert & kills himself. the girl's pun...more
Sandy
Jan 03, 2009 Sandy rated it 3 of 5 stars  ·  review of another edition Recommends it for: white oleander fans
Recommended to Sandy by: Britanie
Having really enjoyed White Oleander, I had high hopes for Paint it Black. I was disappointed. It's not that it is a bad book, I liked it well enough, but it's very drawn out and slow. A lot of Josie's thoughts were redundant and I really felt like a lot of what was written was padding that could have been taken out.

There was just too much that didn't affect the storyline that, if it was removed, would have made the book far more readable. I found that certain sections would have me gobbling al...more
Deanna
I tried and I tired but I just could not continue to read this book. I'm not sure what the problem was. I did catch a nasty virus after starting this book, and had to take a few days off from reading it due to the fact that I could barely sit up for more than 5 minutes at a time, let alone keep my eyes open long enough to read a page! So maybe that had something to do with it? I don't know.

I do know that I became very bored with the boo-hooing over the lost boyfriend. I was nearly half way throu...more
Kelly
Jan 01, 2008 Kelly rated it 5 of 5 stars  ·  review of another edition Recommends it for: people who like character sketches with deep-running themes; people into the early 80s punk scene
I was nervous reading Paint it Black because I didn't want to be let down, as Fitch's previous novel, White Oleander, remains one of my favorite books. Although I don't think Paint it Black is as good as White Oleander, I definitely wasn't let down.

The book is a dual portrait of a young couple in LA in the early 1980s, where Josie is the narrator and Michael has just committed suicide. Josie tells her story while she reminisces about him. Of course she struggles with his death and tries to unde...more
amanda marie
I think my first mistake with this book was that I had incredibly high hopes for it. Of course I would, though. Seeing as how Fitch's previous book, White Oleander is one of my favorites. It took Fitch seven years to release Paint it Black, and I almost feel like she should have kept this book to herself.

Josie Tyrell loses her boyfriend, Michael, to suicide within the first ten pages of the book. Obviously not to best note to start off on, but I was still optimistic. I just felt that Fitch tried...more
Aaron
ahhh, where to start with this one. It's long, first off. Josie is tormented by the suicide of her boyfriend, but to my dismay it turned out they weren't that happy to begin with. Sure, they lived together, but his sudden death consumes his aspiring actress girlfriend and becomes the focus of her life (and the novel). We don't really get to know the boyfriend, and are left with mysterious bits and pieces of his life as pieced together by Josie as she struggles with grief and tries to get to know...more
Louise
I'm surprised that so many people hated this book. True, it took me AGES to get into it, and at first it does seem quite slow and I was a bit disappointed, but then I read it all in one go (literally - I read it around xmas and I had to do a lot of travelling), and I ended up by actually liking it. Not loving it, but I didn't hate it. I thought the characters were interesting. Well, not the main one, really, and I thought Michael was bit of a pissant - but Meredith was a pretty good character. I...more
Bethany
Jul 25, 2007 Bethany rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: fans of Janet Fitch
Shelves: adultfiction
Because of my love for White Oleander I automatically went for this title. It is a much grittier story than Oleander, but equally powerful.

It follows the life of the main character, Josie, who is a struggling to make a life as an actress in LA. Hailing from the trailer parks of Bakersfield, CA, Josie never really received much support to make something of herself, so when she became the object of affection of the rich, spoiled Michael Faraday - son of a renowned concert pianist and travel write...more
Lauren
I was disappointed by this book at first, probably because I made the mistake of comparing it to White Oleander, which I don't think anybody should do. The book took me forever to get through because I was getting so bored. Josie annoyed me throughout most of the book, especially in the beginning. I kept reading it, however, and it did get more interesting in some parts, but then it would go back to being so dull for such a long time. I felt like I was reading the same things over and over. I th...more
Andrea
I give this book 2.5 stars. To be honest, if it wasn't a book club pick I may not have finished it. I just found it too slow with little action. There was a lot of descriptive text, which after a while just got a little old. I wonder if that was the author's intent. The premise of the book was about a girl whose boyfriend commited suicide, and her struggle with that. Perhaps the author was trying to portray that sense of frustration and unease with the way she wrote it. In that way, I would say...more
Tim
a disappointment after white oleander. some long meandering sections that should have been edited out. also, none of the characters are particularly sympathetic or likeable (not that this is a prerequisite for a good book)
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Janet Fitch was born in Los Angeles, a third-generation native, and grew up in a family of voracious readers. As an undergraduate at Reed College, Fitch had decided to become an historian, attracted to its powerful narratives, the scope of events, the colossal personalities, and the potency and breadth of its themes. But when she won a student exchange to Keele University in England, where her pas...more
More about Janet Fitch...
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