“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 should have a bookshelf called "depressing." This is an Oprah pick, so I more or less knew what to expect. It was pretty much a long train wreck of a life, with lots of depressing moments, although somewhat positive in the end.

It was actually interesting reading this after Roxane Gay's Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body, because some of her experiences were similar. A traumatized childhood followed by years of physical and emotional self-abuse, a series of broken relationships, etc. It partly made me feel sorry for her, and partly wanting to shake her and tell her to grow up a little bit, but feeling guilty for feeling that way because of the trauma and personal guilt she was carrying around. I spent the last 200 pages just wanting the book to be over with already. It was ok but nothing I would recommend to anyone else.
2.5/5

I hated this book so much I set fire to it in my kitchen sink so that there would be one less copy of it in the world.