"She's Come Undone" is not the first book I've read about Wally Lamb. For those who are new to him, let me sum up my experience with his books.

Wally Lamb is an extremely talented writer. He draws on things that are familiar to him--namely, the 60s and how arbitrarily cruel life can be at times--and breathes a new life into them. Where most authors would have fallen back on a pile of cliches, Lamb manages to make each story enthralling. His characters are complex and three-dimensional. Many authors have one strength, but Lamb is a genius at both characterization and storytelling.

That said, my experience with his books has been mixed. As enthralling as the stories are, they can be extremely disturbing in a way that feels almost voyeuristic. In "We Are Water," for instance, a large chunk of the book is told from the point of view of a child molester. I'm not opposed to the idea, but his victim's body, and the things he does to her, are described in graphic detail. In "I Know This Much is True," the protagonist rapes his girlfriend in a flashback. He refuses to call what he did rape (even though very obviously was), and later, the whole incident is brushed aside with "We made up and made love." Really? That's it!?

When I picked up "She's Come Undone," I wasn't sure I would like it. This is the first book by Lamb that features a female protagonist. And, weighing around 240 pounds myself, I was concerned that this was going to be another story about a sad, fat woman whose weight loss lines right up with her getting her "real self" back.

As it turns out, I was right. But still, it was such a good story.

At age thirteen, Dolores and her mother are abandoned by her father; later, she is raped by an adult neighbor she was crushing on. Her life goes downhill from there; unable to healthily move through her grief (due to neither her mother nor her grandmother knowing how to help her), Dolores spends most of her time watching TV and eating junk food (because that's all fat people do, am I right?). When she reaches adulthood, she weighs 257 pounds. After attempting and failing to stay in college, Dolores goes up to Cape Cod and briefly considers suicide before her concerned family tracks her down. She is then committed to a psychiatric hospital. From then on, it's Lamb's typical montage of ups and downs as Dolores tries to make sense of her fickle life.

I had no problem with the story itself; I feel like it did what it set out to do. I feel that Lamb very accurately described different types of abuse and neglect, as well as well-meaning people who don't know what to say or do when bad things happen. I also found Kippy's treatment of Dolores to be all too real; plenty of people would rather die than be friends with a fat person.

What I did not like is that Lamb clearly has no idea of what 257 pounds looks like. I know there were fewer fat people in the 70s, but my mother grew up during that time, and she said that there were plenty of people Dolores' size walking around, and they weren't gawked at. Keep in mind that Dolores wasn't 257 pounds at age 13, but as she was nearing adulthood. I've been close to that weight before, and I didn't have cars groaning under my weight, either. I'd be breathing heavily after going up stairs, yes, but not after walking for a short time.

I sometimes found it hard to sympathize with Dolores; some of the things she said to her mother were outright nasty. This isn't a criticism, though, as Dolores is also very human. Many of us fought with our parents, and I've said plenty of mean things to my own mother, especially in my late teens and early twenties. It was also hard for me to understand why she kept lying to people. Why was she afraid to tell Kippy about her real parents? Why did she create an entirely fictional life for herself while she was living with her husband? Of course, I knew her reasons, but as someone who finds it very unpleasant to lie (and comes clean almost immediately), it was hard for me to relate. But again, that's what makes Dolores such a great character.

I was glad to see Lamb address abuse as something more than physical, and as something that can be "hidden." Both Dolores' rapist and her husband are considered to be nice, pleasant men, completely unlike the men they become when they're alone with her. Dolores, too, is not above engaging in abusive behavior, such as when she holds onto Dante's naked pictures, which were never meant for her eyes to begin with.

The book flowed well, as Lamb's novels tend to do, and I was drawn in from the beginning. With a lot of books, I get bored during some scenes. That didn't happen with "She's Come Undone."

One final things I would say to authors--especially thin ones--seeking to write about fat people is, please stop comparing us to whales. It's so overdone. It was probably done as skilfully as possible in this case, but I was still rolling my eyes at all the parallels between Dolores and the "suicidal" humpbacks. Same with elephants and hippopotamuses. Fat people are human, and there's more to us than our sizes. And I get Google wasn't a thing when this book was published, but now it is. Look up what people of a certain weight look like. I can't even tell you how many books I've read that portrayed 200-250 lbs. inaccurately.

This is not the book you read if you’re looking to be uplifted and happy. Although it is very well written, and I think this would make a great movie, it is soooo depressing. This poor girl has such a rough life. There are so many unfortunate circumstances that take place in her life. I feel sad and angry for her. I can appreciate that every story is different and unique in its own way but this was so grim and heartbreaking. Again, the writing was phenomenal, I think I just wasn’t in the mood for this kind of storyline.

Dolores Price is a pretty unforgettable protagonist and narrator. Television addict, overeater, and Etch-a-Sketch artist extraordinaire, she’s a survivor of her parents’ divorce, a rape, and her mother’s untimely death. She succeeds in losing loads of weight, making it out of a mental hospital and snaring the husband she picked out from photographs years before. She finally has a home of her very own. But is she happy? Reminiscent of White Oleander and the best of John Irving, this is a sprawling, compulsively readable story about making your own life and finding happiness in the random course that it takes. I especially loved Mr. Pucci, Dolores’s teacher, and her neighbor Roberta, who gets the great lines “Life’s a shit sandwich, my ass. Life’s a polka and don’t you forget it!” I wasn’t as fond of the Jungian/mystical stuff about Dolores having to go back to the womb and becoming obsessed with whales (too easy a metaphor for obesity?) after a beaching at Cape Cod. All in all, though, I’ve never been let down by an Oprah’s Book Club selection yet. I’ll also read Lamb’s I Know This Much Is True.

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.

2.5 Stars

She's come undone by Wally Lamb was October Book Club read and was really looking forward to this one as have been hearing great things about Wally Lamb.

This is one of those books you either love or hate and I am pretty much on the side of the haters due to the fact that I found the book quite depressing. Half way through the story I was thinking please let something positive happen in this book or just something uplifting. I found the plot just too unbelievable and a bit contrived.

The characters however are well developed and you really do get a great sense of time and place from this novel and Wally Lamb's writing.
I think that this will make a great book club read as we had an excellent discussion on this one.

It's been years and I'm *still* mad that I can't get my time back from reading it.

Wally Lamb's writing is, as usual, beautiful. I especially liked how well he wrote a first person account of a girl's experiences as she goes through her teenage and then womanhood.

What I was not thrilled about was that the pace slacked often enough that my attention to the plot was compromised during the read.

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 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.

I hate this book. The problems with this book are-

Stereotypes. Every supporting character is some kind of stereotype. They don't seem like real, actual people. Not every gay man is effeminate, not every lesbian is butchy. But Lamb doesn't get this so both books I've read by him just have to be chock full of the most annoying stereotypes. Along with the long suffering tormented mother and men that are complete jerks. It gets frustrating.

Dolores is an unpleasant character who makes such terrible decisions such as basically stalking a man, killing someone's fish and just being terrible to people who try to be good to her. Worse is how certain characters, such as a gay man dying of AIDS, exist more to teach her things than to be their own people.

It's the sort of book I liked the first time, but reading it two more times just cements the problems with it. The way it uses the most popular things of an era, which never really reads as authentic to me.

And how difficult is it to write in a woman's perspective? But the fatphobia in this book drove me up a tree. How horrible is it for someone to be fat? It means having extra meat on their bones. It shouldn't be a source of total hatred. Guh.

I read this book years ago, and I barely remember it, but I do remember that I didn't like it. At. All.

All I really remember is wondering why this book was worthy of so much hype and praise. I think my brain blocked out the rest.

She's Come Undone is just so fantastic. I have read this book twice, which is something I never do. The first time I read it was in high school. The second time while I was in my undergrad studies.

There is something so real and touching about the way Lamb wrote the way a woman feels and thinks, which made me forget it was a man who wrote the novel.

The two times I have read this, I took away something different each time. Dolores is the type of woman who has some of my fears as a woman: weight, different insecurities, and other issues I could tell she had. They made the story more real to me.

Some might criticize this book because it was a little depressing in some areas, but I praise it for being real, taking on the challenge of a woman's mind, and ultimately for just being so memorable.

I don't re-read books. There are just so many, and not enough time. However, I will read this for a third and probably a fourth time. It is easily probably my most favorite book EVER.