By Janet Fitch
(Little, Brown and Co.)

Janet Fitch has laid claim to a very specific type of character: egocentric, controlling, artsy mothers in Los Angeles County who just happen to be steeped in death. In her much-devoured best seller, White Oleander, (Oprah's Book Club—hello!), there was Ingrid, the homicidal poet. In her new novel, Paint It Black, Fitch gives us Meredith, the almost-homicidal pianist. Against the backdrop of John Lennon's 1980 murder, the story unfolds through the eyes of Josie, the drug-addled girlfriend of Meredith's son, Michael, an oedipal case who killed himself in the book's backstory. The insane grief that overtakes working-class Josie and elite Meredith creates a tenuous bond between the two. While the book could've easily teetered toward the maudlin, it rarely does, instead delivering real emotional heft. Imagine. Fitch is that rare contemporary writer who can handle sex, death, class issues, and Josie's closet-full of shredded leggings with equal aplomb. —Jessica Grose

LINKS:
Paint it yours.
What a Fitch!
PW likes it some "page-turning psychodrama."