Janet Fitch has written an entertaining and absorbing novel in Paint it Black. Josie Tyrell, who has escaped
the going-nowhere life of Bakersfield, finally finds someone who seems to be meeting her needs.
Josie meets Michael Faraday, son of divorced couple: concert pianist, Meredith Loewy, and writer, Calvin Faraday.
Josie believes Michael is what she has been seeking in her life, only to find out that Michael took off one day, went
to a hotel, and shot himself.
This novel has two intriguing aspects: the way Josie handles her grief, and the strange relationship between Josie
and Meredith. Josie seems to handle her grief in a self-defeating manner, but we have to give it to her - she
doesn’t ball up inside herself. She might not be making the right decisions, but she is making decisions. The
relationship between Josie and Meredith is strange and rather interesting reading. There is a great deal of hate
between the two, but they use each other in some strange way to explain why Michael killed himself, each wanting
to blame the other for what happened.
Despite all the anger and hate involved in the novel, the denouement suggests that Josie, and even Meredith,
get past the incident and are ready to move on with their lives.