You can skip this one. If you get the talking book version on cds, you can skip it across the surface of the nearest large body of water you can find, until it sinks. As it sinks you might hear a voice sounding like Oprah saying " this is the beautiful, unconventional and ultimately life glug affirming glug story of a woman glug glug who endures glug glerg every tribulation glag glag which Wally Lamb could think glug of having studied daytime gluuuurgggg soaps for a year......glgg...rape....ggggg....self-harm......ggg...mental hospital....ggg......"


until finally, all that can be heard is the tweeting of an odd looking bird in a nearby bush. Its curiously unmusical trill sounds like

youfellforthehypeagain!
youfellforthehypeagain!
youfellforthehypeagain!

Years ago I read this book in college. I know I begin a lot of my reviews like this, but books don't change, people do. I read this book and I thought it was good.
Until I read it again and realized it was filled with stereotypes! There was a rotten father, long suffering mother whose own mother was racist and repressed, one evil man after the other, the weak, effeminate gay man who dies of AIDS to push the main character to love her life more, a half black child that raps, a butchy lesbian, ditsy college students; every single stock, card board cutout supporting character you can have is sprinkled in this book.
It was on the list for bookclub this year. I read it again, hoping it would get better.
It didn't. For one thing the main character is, well, a bitch. It's hard to feel sympathetic over all the stuff she went through when she's so harsh and abrasive. It isn't even that. It's the way she stumbles into a rotten relationship, it's how she lies and snarls at the wrong people.
Mostly it's just that this book isn't very good.
Also, what is so bad about being overweight anyway?
It doesn't even have the, Oh, he's writing in the perspective of a woman novelty that gives this book back the three stars I would have given it in the past. Cham Potok probably did a better job writing about a young girl in Davita's Harp than this writer did. He at least had a better understanding of basic female anatomy.
Fact is, this book is dreary, depressing with only a few bright moments that aren't worth slogging through mud and dark for. You're better of just listening to the groovy song Undun and dancing around happily. At least you won't be miseral and frustrated like you would if you had read this book.

I really, truly, honest-to-god am not exaggerating when I say this is one of the worst books I ever read while I was an adult. Lamb hasn't written an actual story so much as he's bound together a series of advice columns and chat show episodes dressed up in vague narrative form. The girl's father leaves! Then she gets raped! Then she gains weight! Then her roommate is mean to her! Then she hooks up with a bad boyfriend! Then some more bad things happen to her after that! And more still after that! And on and on, ad nauseam. Someone should have told Lamb that dreaming up parade of horribles isn't the same as writing a novel. Save yourself 500 pages and watch a couple episodes of Dr. Phil instead. Awful, awful, awful book. If I could give it less than one star, I would.

Addendum: Every so often, someone comes along and flags this review as having spoilers. Complaining about spoilers in this review is, not to put too fine a point on it, really stupid. Most of the plot points I mention here are either in the actual cover copy of the book, in the Goodreads summary, or occur somewhere within the first ten pages or so. The rest are so vague (e.g., hooking up with a bad boyfriend -- a plot point that probably occurs in some form in, oh, half of the books ever written) that if you consider them "spoilers," I'm not really sure why you read book reviews at all.

Further addendum: If you're about to complain about spoilers in this review, please see comment 55 below. If you're that hysterical about spoilers, maybe stop reading online reviews before you read the book. Also, the book was published 25 years ago and I think the statute of limitations has really run on this one. Rosebud was his sled!!

Wally Lamb seems to have “pushed a lot of buttons” with this book based on the number of 1-star ratings I see. I’m curious what all the angst is about. It was a tough read but I found it to be a thorough character study. But, I get it. It’s hard to like a book when the main character is so unlikable. “Way to stir up some emotion, Mr. Lamb. Now, I want to read the rest of your books.”

“I thought about how love was always the thing that did that - smashed into you, left you raw. The deeper you loved, the deeper it hurt.”

Wally Lamb is a literary genius. She's Come Undone is the first book I read after coming back from an almost 6 month reading slump. I tried and tried to read, but nothing was catching me... until I picked up this book.

This book will always stay with me in so many ways, and while reading it I felt such a myriad of emotions. I laughed with Dolores, I cried with Dolores, I got angry at Dolores, I felt sorry for Dolores, and finally I felt empowered through Dolores. This wonderfully complex character grabs you by your heart and doesn't let you go. Never have I felt such a deep connection to a character since reading Tell the Wolves I'm Home. Wally Lamb writes so convincingly as a female voice, I was astounded.

I would recommend this book to anyone who will listen, and I am so happy to have read it at the time that I did. I needed Dolores and I am so so sad to see her go.

I have to wonder if any of Lamb's children were teenage girls while he was writing this novel. If not, then I'm sure his wife had her brain picked apart to help him write this novel. Why? Lamb so captures the teenage girl spirit in this book (or at least the spirit of a crushed and ruined teenage girl) that it's hard to believe this wasn't written by a woman.

Delores's story is moving and has something we can all relate to, especially those of us who have ever gone through a trauma or depression. But one thing that's different about Delores is that you can't pity her. She doesn't want that, and Lamb has not written her that way. At times you find yourself wanting to scream at her to wake up and do something!

With the exception of Delores's college "companions" most all the other characters she encounters are fully developed and interesting. They all appear in Delores's life for a reason, enriching her and teaching her a lesson, though not always a lesson Delores learns from.

I don't feel that this is a book that I can criticize this book as much as I should. She's Come Undone is for anyone struggling in their life. In a way it will help you realize that you're not alone, other people have been through shit too, and you can overcome it and be stronger in the end. And even if you haven't been through anything difficult (which I find hard to believe) you should still read this book, because it's still a really good book.

And now, I'm going to end this because I have forgotten what else I want to say. I suppose I've said enough though, and I hope you will read this book if you haven't or tell me what you thought if you have.

This book is beautiful, tragic and compelling. It's a well-written piece of fiction.
With that said, if you aren't clinically depressed by the time you start this book, just wait until you finish. The paperback is 465 pages of the life of a woman who has the most tragic life-altering experiences as she tries to pick herself back up again. I actually had to set this book down for a week because it was pretty intense. Things go badly, continue to go badly, and just when they start to pick up they go from bad to worse.
Don't get me wrong, it's worthwhile. But know what you are getting yourself into. You can only eat so much chocolate before you get sick, you can only listen to so much Bob Dylan before you realize he's a narcissist and you can't only read so much Wally Lamb before you are too flagelated to continue.

“I think... the secret is to just settle for the shape of your life takes...Instead of you know, always waiting and wishing for what might make you happy.”

Damn, but this is one of those hard books to rate, think about, and review. It's a cauldron of chaos, a literary train wreck written into the character's life. We're with Dolores from a young age, and we go through the agonies of aging and tragedy with her. So. Much. Tragedy!

It's a book I couldn't take in all at once - instead I had to ingest small doses, then come back to it later. Wally Lamb writes cleverly well - his wording sucked me in when I dared to continue Dolores' depressing story. There's symbolism, there's growth, there's walking backward, there's surprises, there's pain and beauty.

Dolores is hard to identify with - in one way this book is so honest, touching upon things people don't mention enough. Obesity and Aids and rape and horrible husbands and death and...well, so much. This is in no way a simple novel about a woman overcoming obesity. Does she ever survive and find herself? Or does she just survive and find herself in a realistic way, the only way people ever really can?

In some ways Dolores was a turn off, and I don't mean her weaknesses, because I understood those. I mean her lashing out and willingness to hurt those close to her so easily. I know it was because of her age at some point, her anger and frustration and teenage hormones - later I know it was because of her rage and because that was the only way she knew how to fight back. I sympathized with her - she went through awful, horrible stuff. I understood when she fell because so many have fallen there too. I didn't mind that - there was just something a little mean-spirited about her, but I guess that's another thing that makes her a more realistic and honest character.

This book is heavy - I don't mean just length, although that's considerable, but because I went through so many long phases with Dolores, phases that were enough to cover a whole novel by each phase itself. I figured when I got to a point, then the rest of the novel would keep following it. But no, more cycles would start and begin, life was lived a long time in these pages, from a child with the world shattered to a woman nearing forty who has found a semblance, finally, of peace.

I struggled between a three and four star rating. The subject matter, the writing style, the heavy depth deserve four stars. I think I didn't enjoy the second half as much, I was growing impatient with it, how it was draining me, and maybe that sucked a rating away from my enjoyment.

I do have to say that She's Come Undone is different, it's daring, it's honest, it's heartbreaking (really), but it's also wonderful and deserves a read. Definitely not a book I'll forget, and it's not something I've read before.

For Dolores, like for so many of us, there's that ray of hope that is at the same time covered with reality's bleakness.

This caused more controversy than any book my book group read. Half the group loved it, half hated it. I thought it could have easily been 100 pages shorter while telling the same story, and the only character I liked was the bad guy. Also, the symbolism was like getting smacked in the head with a Louisville Slugger.

The HR director where I used to work saw me leaving my copy at the company lending library.

"Didn't you LOVE that book?" she swooned.

"Well, some of my friends did, but to be honest, I didn't like it at all," I said.

She responded in a mild and pleasant tone of voice: "Well, I guess you've never been a fat girl, have you?"

This was an extremely depressing story, and kind of killed my New Year holiday vibes. I thought it was a bit of an overkill with all of the terrible things that happened to one person. It was literally one thing after another, to the point where I was kind of rolling my eyes.

My three year old nephew was taught "good choices" and "bad choices" in school, and whenever his older brother does something naughty he goes "Bad choices, brother!", which is adorable. In this book some bad things happen to the main character, but for the most part I couldn't help but want to shout "Bad choices, chick! Because really.

Recommended for masochists.

Alright. I re-read one of my favorite books of all time. Mind you, the first and only time I read this was when I was 16/17, upon recommendation of my high school English teacher to use in an essay about mental health in literature. I wish I could re-do whatever I wrote in that essay because I promise that I missed the point the first time.

Re-reading this as a young woman - oof. Dolores is a toughie. I don't know how or why, but her character is so intertwined with me and when I pick this book up it feels like I'm right alongside her. Worried to death about her.

You see the red flags with Dad and Mom's relationship, but what can you do? That's love, you're told - until it isn't. Jack Speight - what can you do as just a girl? A man who woos everyone around him and seems so generous, so he must be safe. Dante - the man who so piously offers himself as just a selfless man... or is he just full of s***? It feels so heartbreaking to be alongside Dolores and know that she is a victim of so many different people and circumstances.

The whale thing also went so over my head the first time I read it. I thought it was so dumb, but I understand it's literary merit and appreciate it for what it is.

I hated this book. I don't know how I managed to finish it. I have read some of the reviews where the readers were impressed with how well the male author relayed a story of a struggling woman. Are you kidding me? I found it insulting that this guy thinks that is how a woman would behave. Let me tell you something, I have gone through some hard times in my life, never did I find myself personifying a whale while sitting next to it watching it die. In my opinion, the story was about her descent into insanity - but, apparently where I read "insanity" some found "profundity." No. Nothing profound there. Just painful to my senses.