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.

After I bought this book, I read the reviews that said that this book was terrible, and that a male author writing about a teenage girl was ridiculous and out-of-touch. I immediately thought I had made a mistake - but it turns out my only mistake was reading the reviews.

This story begins with Delores navigating becoming a teenager. We then see her move through her teens, twenties and thirties while trying to manage her past traumas and unhealthy coping mechanisms (which have caused her to become obese). Delores is incredibly fragile, but with a tough exterior and a dark outlook on life. At times I found her to be a bit frustrating, but you can't help but root for her to make it.

While I ended up really becoming invested in this story and enjoying it, you should be warned that there is a lot of difficult topics here. The list of content warnings is long, and the subject matter is presented in a very raw and jarring way - so read with caution. All of that being said, I truly enjoyed this book and got goosebumps at the end.

I approached this book with the expectation that I would hate it--a book about a fat girl written by a man. However, once I started reading it, I was immediately drawn to the character of Dolores Price. This book is full of lovable and complex characters, all of whom I will miss now that I finished reading this novel. And there is so much wisdom here. Wally Lamb brought to life people and relationships so real they seemed at times to walk right off the page. I will definitely look for more of his books, and "She's Come Undone" is one more than worthy of rereading and lending to friends.

In the beginning this book feels a little like chick lit on steroids, and I enjoyed all the pop culture references in the early chapters... but trust me, this isn't chick lit.

While at times the journey is unbelievable-- the feelings and emotions of Dolores Price who we meet at four and say goodbye to in her 30s run the gamut from pathetic to anger to deep sadness-- a lot of it felt authentic. There were times I related and other times I felt uncomfortable.

This book is ultimately about learning to love yourself and the others around you, despite all faults, defects and past sins. Nice debut novel!

(Reviewed 3/17/09)

If there was a way to give this book 10 stars, I would. The main character in this book, Dolores Price, has become one of my top five favorite protagonists. I finished the book a few hours ago, and am still absorbing it. Quite honestly, I am semi-baffled by the negative reviews of this novel. I say "semi" because I noticed a pattern of the negative reviews. Women complaining that a "man" was writing about the experience of a young girl, or one very angry reviewer "hating" this book because what did the author know about being fat and HOW DARE he refer to Dolores as obese (Dolores, at 13 weighed 250 pounds, I'm sorry but that IS obese). And, excuse me, but since when is the rule that male authors can only write about men and female authors about women?

WIth that said, yes, this book was heavy. Lots of very very awful and horrible things happen to Dolores as a child AND as an adult. There is domestic abuse, rape, death, compulsive eating, AIDS, abortion and suicide as just some of the things that cross Dolores's path in her journey. This is not a book for people who expect a happily-ever-after ending. One reviewer stating "everything in this book was depressing". If that is what you get from this book, then you have not dug deep enough to understand her. As a child, she used food to hide her anguish and pain, and getting raped at 13 years old jumpstarts more horrible events and behaviors. After her mother dies and Dolores makes the very brave decision to go away to college, a much older female friend seduces her and pretty much takes advantage of Dolores, and they have sex. Again, a lesbian reviewer, took offense to the way the author chose to portray a gay woman. As a lesbian, and strong feminist, I took no offense at all and I think if you are someone who is not looking to compare your life with Dolores's, then you will love and appreciate this book. Dolores is funny, smart, and at the end of her story has not only faced her demons, but smacked them around a few times and sent them flying. I was so proud of her for who she had become and how she had healed!

This book is about a JOURNEY, male author or not, it depicts a young woman's turbulent life experiences and her triumphs as well. She is strong, beautiful, funny, smart, and loving. This novel will stay with me for a very long time and has reminded me of how fragile relationships are, especially our relationships with ourselves. We ABSOLUTELY have to love who we are in order to love someone else. This was an amazing story.

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.

I really didn’t enjoy this book. It felt very bland, sad, depressing and feelingless – nothing came to life for me. I understand women are depressed and led horrible lives with a multitude of problems. I don’t need a book to tell me that – I like to read to learn about something I’m unaware of. Books that are believable/plausible and well written appeal to me – I find it difficult to believe that a 13-year old encounters physical abuse issues, divorce, intense depression, violent rape, and the death of a parent all by the age of 13. Please. Beautifully written books on depressing topics that really came alive for me include Like Water for Elephants, the Pearl by Steinbeck, Grapes of Wrath, Old Man and the Sea, Anne Frank’s Diary, and many others.

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 really didn't like this book. It was recommended to me as an example of a man that could write with a womens voice. Nope. I didn't buy it. I also didn't buy his understanding of growing up as a fat girl. So Poo on you Mr. Lamb.
Here is a review by someone named Colin who I don't know but I completely agree with:
"Yes. I hated this book. I read it about ten years ago, and it pissed me off. To this day I refer to it as "that goddamn whale book." What repelled me then is that the main character, a fat girl, bonds with a real fucking whale and it's supposed to be Deep and Meaningful. "Yes, Mr. Whale. I am a fat girl. I, too, am a whale. We understand one another." Please. Try harder, Wally. Also, the fat girl hates herself so has a creepily awkward lesbian hookup with a janitor and subsequently kills said janitor's fish. I read that part as weird homophobic classist shit, at least back then, and that's the impression that will stand, because I'm never reading it again.

I don't know why everyone was beside themselves about Lamb as a man writing a female POV, either. Who fucken cares? How come no one makes a huge fuss like that when a woman writes a male POV? This book is so annoying. Argh."
Thank you Colin, well said.

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!

Delores Price a young girl, who lives through so much tragedy and deals with it in such self-destructive ways that the story becomes depressing, tragic.
The book deals with harsh subjects: rape, abortion, divorce, parental instability, bullying. Delores herself is not the nicest of people. She is self-destructive, pushes away anyone who tries to love her, and constantly blames herself for life's atrocities.

2.5 stars, really. For the most part this book is unutterably depressing, a little nugget of misery. Few of the characters are likeable and those who are feature only incidentally (Larry and Ruth, Roberta, Mr Pucci). Only sheer stubbornness kept me reading and it was a mercy that began to improve towards the end. I would hesitate to recommend this book and am decidedly unsure about exploring more by this author (who writes very well), especially since his note at the end of the novel talks of his "troubled characters". I don't know if he means merely in this novel or if that is an ongoing theme throughout his oeuvre. If the latter then I think I may avoid more of his work.