Apparently, the popular opinion is that Wally Lamb can write from a woman's perspective like no one's business. I vehemently disagree. The entire 500 pages I was reading this, I was thinking, hmm I'm not sure I'd react like that, I wonder if I know anyone who would, hmm that seems a bit of a stretch, oh really? This book was depressing with no insight, cruelly funny in places, with a main character I felt like I should like just because her life is so rotten, but I couldn't like her because she herself was pretty rotten.

Also the cover I have is a face hovering in clouds, which is weird but much more appropriate than this faceless mannequin in a cocktail dress cover.

This is one of my all time favorite books. I just recently reread the book and fell in love all over again. It had been some time since I read the book and felt I should refresh my memory since I recommend it to so many.

She’s Come Undone is the story of a troubled teenage girl growing into a woman, her struggles and the ways in which she decides to cope with them. She puts on a tough exterior but inside is as soft as the marshmallows she finds comfort in.

Dolores is plagued with heartache, hurt and uncertainty. As a teenager it seems that every person she allows close to her hurts her. She withdraws herself inward and finds comfort in the television and food, losing all interest in the outside world. By doing so she creates more problems for herself, mentally and physically.

When she heads off to college, extremely overweight, she finds out how cruel the world can really be, which sends her even farther down the spiral. Eventually she hits rock bottom. After a couple of years of treatment she decides to create her own destiny. To take control of her life and make it what she wants.

At first things were working out for her and it seemed she had the life she always longed for. We all know that it never happens that way, there is always a snafu, and things do go south for Dolores. But you know what, it just raises her higher. She finally finds herself and makes peace with her past.

There is no need for you to have experienced all the hurt, heartache and tragedy as Dolores to empathize with her, all you have to be is a woman. The most remarkable aspect of the book is that it was not written by a woman. The very first time I read the book I kept checking the cover to make sure it was a man that was writing it. Some how, and I am not sure how, Wally Lamb has totally tapped into how it feels to be a teenage girl, an abused girl, a girl coming into a woman, a woman having her heart broken for the first time by the man of her dreams, and a woman making it on her own after all of these things.

Truly an incredible book. Buy it for all the women in your life.

I could not believe I was able to finish reading this book. The first part was okay - a typical dysfunctional family. Dolores' father earning money by being a male whore, divorce, getting raped, etc. Then she became fat and then she became fond of whales. The symbolism between her and whales is obvious. All this male-author-writing-female perspective that the book tries to sell with all those quotes on the book cover does not make a lot of sense. Why? Because Dolores Price's perspective is not typical of a female teenager or young adult. I have lived with many female relatives all my life and there is nobody like her in them. It could be that Dolores is an American but that is another story. The only nice thing about this book is the cover and I was deceived by it. It's good that I bought this book on sale at P20.00.

Note to self: When you're about to take your kid to swimming lessons and you think "Hmm, that book's getting a little intense, it might not be a good idea to take it" and you start looking for a pool-suitable book but then you think "Meh, it'll be fine" and just take the damn book - when that happens, don't come complaining to me when you end up having to surreptitiously wipe and blink away tears because yes, the book got very intense and emotional. And then you have to stay up half the night finishing it because you just can't leave Dolores hanging.
Learn from my mistakes, people.

I’m not sure why I read this entire, relentlessly depressing book, but I did. At about page 250, I thought, “Isn’t this over by now? I’m ready for this to be over.” And yet I kept reading, gaining and losing interest intermittently, until I reached the predictable, overtly sentimental close that didn’t compensate for the hundreds of pages of intricately detailed (and often contrived) human pain. Though the book was emotionally real in parts, its events and characters were largely unbelievable. It was simply over the top. I suppose, however, it was well written, or I wouldn’t have read it all.

There’s been a great deal of gushing over the fact that, despite being a man, Wally Lamb has managed to write a book from the point of view of a woman. I don’t really feel qualified to remark on his success (or lack thereof) in this regard, because, although a woman myself, I have been told on more than one occasion that I “think like a man,” whatever that means, but, as far as I can tell, it means I prefer discussions of politics and theology to discussions of shopping and home décor, which perhaps tells you something about the prima facie assumptions that lead people to pat men on the back for being able to penetrate the psyches of women. I don’t know if Wally Lamb accurately captures “the woman’s psyche,” because, you see, he’s not writing about “women,” but about a particular woman who suffers continuous abuse at the hands of person after person, year after year; who time and time again encounters an array of idiosyncratic people who hardly exist outside of Oprah Book Club selections; who manages to accomplish--or find herself the fortuitous recipient of--the highly unlikely on more than one occasion; and who finds life-affirming meaning in whales. Maybe I could have at least related to that last part…that is, when I was a 3rd grade girl.

Let me put it this way: if this book were wine, it wouldn't even be Boone's Farm. 'Nuff said.

This was the author’s debut, released in 1992.
The writing is remarkable.
I thought that his understanding of the women’s nature was incredible, unless he was coached.
Now, the storyline spreads between 1954 and 1994, and some expressions may upset readers born later than that. Some of the passages may be considered racist, sexist, homophobic. The body shaming can also be very upsetting.
But the author was reflecting the era, where things like that were considered “normal”.
When this book was released some critics labeled it as humorous or hilarious. I did not think so (except the joke about Parkinson’s Disease).
If you decide to read this book, keep this in mind.

I have had this book sitting in my shelves for 30 years. The pages of my book were burned by the sun (my old condo faced west) and I was kind of embarrassed opening the book during my commute to work (silly me).

Anyways… some friends told me that this book was extremely depressing.
I did not know what to expect, except great writing. And that I did get.
This is a coming-of-age story.
The storyline is heartbreaking, but I did not find it depressing (except one chapter when the main character was thinking of suicide).
This is about the struggle of a young girl, in a dysfunctional family, victim of rape, who became obese. It’s a story of a woman overcoming her trauma and where it got her.
The main character won my heart in the beginning, but later she lost my sympathy because of her behavior and some times aggressive/rude attitude. Eventually she won my sympathy again.

This is a work of fiction and full of dramas. To some readers a person weighting 254 pounds may not seem too heavy, but for a 13 years old girl (or any teenager) facing school, there is no doubt.

This was my second book by this author.
He won my respect and heart with “I Know This Much Is True”, which was adapted for a tv series having Mark Ruffalo playing the main characters, the twins. The book was my favourite one of 2021, out of 174.

I hate this book so much it can change my opinion of you if you say you like it.

Bad things happen to girl, girl does SERIOUSLY RANDOM CRAP. Like, "Now that we've had sex, Random Lesbian, I would like to kill your fish."

Girls, especially the big, giant, fat ones, cannot control themselves or command their destiny. But they really dig whales! (Goldfish beware!)

Oh my God, I hate it.

Once I started reading this book, I couldn't put it down. Dolores is a character you feel compelled to follow until the end. She's totally relatable! I found myself laughing, moderately cringing and hoping at various times the trajectory of her life would shift...and be filled with fewer challenges. Definitely a novel with integrity and heart. I highly recommend this one.

She's Come Undone, Wally Lamb

She's Come Undone is the 1992 debut novel by Wally Lamb. She's Come Undone has been translated into eighteen languages.

She's Come Undone is the story of a troubled teenage girl growing into a woman, her struggles and the ways in which she decides to cope with them. In this engaging first novel, narrator Dolores Price recounts her life story from age four to age 40.

Wally Lamb has written his first novel in the arresting voice of Dolores Price, a 40-year-old woman who recounts in scrupulous detail her harrowing progress into adulthood.

In "She's Come Undone," an ambitious, often stirring and hilarious book, Mr. Lamb gives his vociferous heroine truly heroic proportions, in both the physical and the psychical sense.

تاریخ نخستین خوانش روز نخست ماه اکتبر سال 2008میلادی

عنوان: دو ل‍ورس‌؛ نویسنده: وال‍ی‌ ل‍م‍ب‌‏‫؛ مترجم: ن‍وش‍ی‍ن‌ ری‍ش‍ه‍ری‌؛ تهران، نقش و نگار، 1384؛ در 336ص؛ شابک 9646235921؛ موضوع داستانهای نویسندگان ایالات متحده آمریکا - سده 20م

رمان «دولورس؛ دختر ناموفق»، نوشته «والی لمب» نویسنده ی «آمریكایی» است؛ «دولورس» شخصیت محوری این رمان از مشکلات خانوادگی بسیاری رنج میبرد ولی تلاش خستگی ناپذیری را برای رهایی از این مشکلات و آفرینش یک زندگی دیگر را برای خود آغاز میکند و...؛

تاریخ بهنگام رسانی 09/07/1400هجری خورشیدی؛ ا. شربیانی

I'm going to be honest, I was quite young when I read this...maybe 15...but it was one of those stories that simply sticks in your brain. I hated it. With everything in me...nothing about this was uplifitng whatsoever and it ends with her bonding with a whale. oooh, amazing. Every turn of the page displayed yet something even more depressing until you were ready to scream...she was depressed and obsessive and fat and slightly lesbionic and trapped herself with a man whom she created really in her mind. I wanted to feel sorry for her, especially because her life was so messed up but it seems she did nothing to help herself but only proceeded to make things worse.
The most I got out of this was wondering if one could actually loose weight by imagining your food had mold on it like she did.

Fat girl eats a lot of roast beef and throws up. Then she feels better.

Oh and its written by a man who is absolutely impecable at capturing the feminine adolescent bi-polar voice. Cause I know when I'm at the book store I'm like ok can you tell me where the Feminine adolescent bi-polar section is?.....