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She's Come Undone

by Wally Lamb

3.70 · rating details · 93,157 ratings · 5,408 reviews

In this extraordinary coming-of-age odyssey, Wally Lamb invites us to hitch a wild ride on a journey of love, pain, and renewal with the most heartbreakingly comical heroine to come along in years.

Meet Dolores Price. She's 13, wise-mouthed but wounded, having bid her childhood goodbye. Stranded in front of her bedroom TV, she spends the next few years nourishing herself

...more

Mass Market Paperback, 465 pages

Published June 28th 1998 by Pocket (first published August 1st 1992)

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Jul 12, 2007

Colin rated it

Shelves: fiction, booksihate

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Jul 02, 2010

Laura rated it

· review of another edition

Recommends it for: Masochists

Shelves: fiction

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 by her mother's boyfriend! Then she gains weight! Then she loses weight! Then she hooks up with a bad boyfriend! Then some more bad things happen to her after that! And more ...more

like 64 likes

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Nov 02, 2007

Tyler rated it

Recommends it for: no-one

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 t...more

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Sep 23, 2007

Danae rated it

Recommends it for: People who like derivative fiction

I want to start out by saying that I read *I know this much is true* by Wally Lamb and would rate it in my top 5 favorite books of all time, so this review shouldn't deter anyone from reading his work.
I read some of the other reviews before writing this and I was surprised at how many women were shocked that a man could write such a convincing woman's perspective.
I know MANY insightful, perceptive men who understand women, so I don't find it a stretch that a man can write with a woma...moreI want to start out by saying that I read *I know this much is true* by Wally Lamb and would rate it in my top 5 favorite books of all time, so this review shouldn't deter anyone from reading his work.
I read some of the other reviews before writing this and I was surprised at how many women were shocked that a man could write such a convincing woman's perspective.
I know MANY insightful, perceptive men who understand women, so I don't find it a stretch that a man can write with a woman's voice. This is creative fiction after all.

If you were to take all the cliches' present in a difficult upbringing--physical and sexual abuse, sexual experimentation, growing up the fat kid, making continuous bad choices, demonizing men, dealing with someone with HIV, and then write a book with polarized characters who rarely find a common ground, you would end up with this book.

I take issue mostly with the character of Dante and his relationship with Dolores.
After a very traumatic upbringing, Dolores finally ends up in college. While there, she develops a very involved secret crush on a roommates’ boyfriend. Years later she runs across a picture of him, tracks down where he lives (without the internet), moves across the country and into his building (the flat directly across the hall, no less) and gets him to fall in love with and marry her in very short order. WHAT? She’s been a withdrawn, traumatized fat girl for the majority of her life but as soon as she loses weight and meets Dante, she develops these mad boyfriend-acquiring skills that turn him from lothario to devoted partner and husband. Please.
I can see randomly running across a picture of someone you recognize from your past, but everything after that was completely unbelievable.

Dante seemed merely a pawn, convenient to the author for whatever drama he wanted to introduce to Dolores, but there was no consistency in him throughout the book.
As a youth he's a loving and devoted Christian, when Dolores meets him he's a womanizing playboy but becomes an attentive thoughtful, boyfriend, then he turns into a critical and selfish spouse, then a cheat, then a virtual pedophile.

The next thing that made me go hmmm was that he took what was initially a positive gay relationship and threw in *the AIDS thing* to muck it all up. It was almost as if he said to himself *Okay. Now my characters are moving into the early 1980's. What was the drama happening then?* and chose AIDS.

Assuming that the gay characters were monogamous (which he surely alluded to) the only way they could have been exposed was through a breakup, so he randomly threw one in.
I don’t know many gay 50yo’s that break up mostly happy LTR’s in the hopes of finding better, especially in a small town and time where gay is still considered deviant.
I live in SF. I have scores of gay friends. I guess with my life experience, I just don't see the monogamous mid-life gay couple as the ones getting HIV.

The good things I WILL say about this book is that his writing is always amazingly descriptive, his characters have depth and texture (if not believability) and his stories are epic.

I will surely read more from him, but with a more critical eye now that he's fallen off the first impression pedestal I've put him on.
This was his first book, too, so I give him leeway for that.(less)

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Sep 26, 2007

Kaili Oteri rated it

Recommends it for: short legs on tables

This book sucked. A) What the hell does a MAN know about writing about a fat girl's life? NOTHING. Thus making whole book wrong. B) Obviously didn't research anything about the main character, places her in situations she would NOT be in at the weight prescribed. What did he actually ASK WOMEN what they weigh? Guess what moron, they LIE. A 200lb woman can still fit in a car, loser. I could go on forever. The only reason I even read this book was because I forgot a book on an airplane and was off...more

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Sep 17, 2007

Logan rated it

Shelves: fiction, families_suck

Dear Bob, please deliver me from anymore sanctimonious books about the struggles of forging an independent identity and moving on from traumatic events. They were really good and really touching the first, ummmm, 20-30 times I read them, but at this point it just feels like I'm reading retreads of the same old tired story. I've seen this movie. They gave Angelina the Oscar for it even though Winona deserved it more. But that is neither here nor there. Is the book well-written? Yes, it most...more

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Feb 09, 2008

David rated it

Recommends it for: Fans of the book of Job

Shelves: read-in-2008

She’s Come Undone (Wally Lamb)

A week after finishing this book, I still have conflicting opinions. It’s hard to synthesize them into a coherent review, so I’m just going to summarize what I liked and disliked.

On the plus side:

Easy to read: The story is told as a first-person narrative by the main protagonist, Dolores. Though her actions can be exasperating to the point where you want to shake some sense into her, she is always engaging, keeping a sense of (...more

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Jul 15, 2008

Patrick rated it

Update: I found an old review I wrote about this book for an online book club I used to be in. I clearly hated it. Here it is, more or less in its entirety.

To be blunt, I didn't like it. It's hard to know where to begin when explaining my dislike for 'She's Come Undone.' Wally Lamb, to be sure, wrote very...believably. I felt like it was a girl writing. However, the fact of the matter is that I'm a man, and I have no idea how a woman thinks. Therefore, I'm clearly not the best jud...moreUpdate: I found an old review I wrote about this book for an online book club I used to be in. I clearly hated it. Here it is, more or less in its entirety.

To be blunt, I didn't like it. It's hard to know where to begin when explaining my dislike for 'She's Come Undone.' Wally Lamb, to be sure, wrote very...believably. I felt like it was a girl writing. However, the fact of the matter is that I'm a man, and I have no idea how a woman thinks. Therefore, I'm clearly not the best judge of this.

My first problem was the paper-thin development of male characters in the story. Perhaps I'm being picky, but I thought all the male characters. In the best cases they had no depth. In the worst cases their actions didn't even make sense.

Let's first explore the "Daddy" character. He is a stock deadbeat dad. Not all that attentive or a good parent when he was around, and then he disappears. And when he does so, we are left to fill in the blanks with vague details of his life. He is remarried. He is divorced again. He is remarried again. He doesn't write. He makes empty promises. Blah blah blah. We can understand why Dolores is so angry with him, but we are given only a cursory glimpse to his emotions, what drives him. Towards the end of the novel his wife writes Dolores and tells her that he was "a good man." And it leaves Dolores to wonder, 'was he a good man?' This was a good device, because we are left to wonder as Dolores did. However, the fact remains that we were given very little of the character. He was a tool, a means to make Dolores what she grew into (quite literally). But "Daddy" is probably one of the better male characters. (A side note, and to answer Megan's question, I think it was a blatant device used by Lamb in having Dolores refer to her deadbeat father as "daddy" constantly. He was clearly, in my mind anyway, attempting to connect Dolores's father's leaving as the end of Dolores's innocence, the end of her childhood, as shortly after she was violated by Jack. And maybe that is truly how such a thing would happen. But, as useful a device as that may have been, I find it trite, because I cannot bring myself to believe that a young woman with so much hate towards her father that she would cuss him out at her mother's funeral and cut off all contact with him for her entire life would continue to refer to him as "daddy" throughout the course of her tormented life. But that's just my opinion.)

Thayer. A stock nice guy meant to contrast Jack and Dante. Beyond that, he really serves no purpose aside from offering Dolores a type of redemption.

Jack and Dante. Now, I feel that they were basically the same character. Which was appropriate, because they both did complete 180's in their personality. Someone in an earlier post mentioned that there were "clues" as to their true nature. With Jack, I disagree. It was complete bullshit.

First of all, all we were given of Jack was how wonderful he was. In fact, at the end the chapter in which we are introduced to Jack and his generically cute wife Dolores says the whole family fell in love with a couple. Which is true in a sense, in that Jack won the family over. But what of his wife? No one seemed to like her. Dolores's mother was fucking Jack, so clearly she didn't love his wife. And Dolores complains that his wife isn't good enough for Jack, that she is not pretty enough or some such nonsense. No, no, it was Jack they fell in love with. And initially you can see why. He is handsome and fun, very likable. But then he is completely different, and we are given no good reason why. He starts out like an all-American neighbor who suddenly devolves into a degenerate because, why, because he is giving Dolores rides home after school? Because his wife wanted to get pregnant? It didn't make sense. There were no hints at all until he started giving Dolores rides home after school and swearing and acting like a generally rude asshole. And to me that felt contrived, as if Lamb was saying, "see, it shouldn't be surprising that he is raping her. He swore and yelled at her in the car a few times! He's not the guy we all thought he was!"

But that's just it! Lamb sets Jack up as this great guy and then artificially tears him down. Jack didn't even feel like the caricature he was purported to be. It was like two different people, and the only common thread was that Dolores had a crush on him and he was called Jack.

Let us just take a moment to review Dante. We are clearly meant to draw parallels from Jack to Dante. Both were introduced to us as good men. Then they were arbitrarily turned into child molesters when the situation fit (i.e. when it would ruin Dolores's life). To be honest, the only thing that even hinted at what Dante would become when he was religious and vulnerable is the letter where he says he does not want to become a womanizer. But, in brief, he is a religious, vulnerable virgin as a young man and a verbally (and on one occasion, physically) abusive, arrogant, sex-obsessed adult.

And he decides that Dolores is the one from the get-go. Why? Mr. Wing (the landlord) mentions that he is quite the womanizer. The teacher at the dance alludes to the exotic women he used to date. He clearly gets off on young girls (as we see at the dance and his relationship with Sheila). But Dolores steps into his life, he beds her immediately and then, just as quickly gives up on all other women. Moves in with Dolores and eventually marries her. I realise that there are arguments for why this could happen (she's easy to live with as she just considers herself lucky to have him; but I find that bullshit because he clearly isn't intellectually stimulated by her, and I doubt he is intellectually stimulated by hot high school girls), in short, I'm not really buying them. They are not logical in life or the story. So, essentially, Dante is simply there to be the adult Jack--physically and emotionally raping Dolores until she is able to defend herself and leave. But he is not believable.

And finally, Dolores. I have so many questions. She gets fat and depressed for good reasons. Fine, all very well. I sympathize. College breaks her and she goes nuts, has a brief lesbian encounter (but, come on, what young girl doesn't experiment with that sort of thing in college? Am I right ladies?) and freaks out about it and, generally, her life. So she runs away, swims with a beached whale, goes crazy and ends up in a mental institute. And boy, does she go crazy. Biting her tongue til it bleeds? Mutalating herself in various ways? Why? I read that sort of thing and I was fucking shocked. I mean, she was depressed, sure, but why did she start mutalating herself? Because she was in a mental hospital? I don't buy it at all. I feel like it was simply stereotypical bullshit thrown out by Lamb for shock value, as if to say to the reader, "look....look what her life has done to her!" Ridiculous. In fact, I found the entire mental hospital to be a load of bullshit, from the "therapy" she alternately accepts and rejects (which she should have just outright rejected, because, maverick or no maverick, Dr. Shaw belonged in that hospital as a patient, not a doctor. That scene where he is talking to Dolores in the "womb" (pool) was just creepy. It made me uncomfortable.) to the way she leaves. Completely contrived. Why did she leave? Everything was going well, so she started "etch-a-sketching" (a clear connection to her mother and her painting, specifically the flying leg painting. Both are left of what you would expect, even in creative outlets) and then decided to abruptly abandon the therapy before completion due to some psychic. That was completely out of character, at least out of the character Lamb had fleshed out for us in the mental hospital. She was just starting to come around and be a functioning human being again, and she suddenly throws it all away because of some psychic? It didn't make sense, felt contrived, a plot device to keep the story moving and avoid it getting bogged down in the mental hospital.

So I feel like this is getting a little long, so I will skip ahead to what I consider the third part of Dolores's life, when she leaves Dante and moves back into her Grandmother's house. And I will skip most of that, because it was dull and uneventful (she puts her life back together, grand) and go to the part that stuck out for me the most. That was the contrived fight she has with Rita, where Rita falls down the stairs and ends up in the hospital. What the fuck was that all about? I mean, seriously, where did that come from? Everything is going great. Rita tells Dolores she should buy a car with her money, Dolores is leaning towards a satellite and big television. So she gets it. Fair enough? Apparently not. Apparently Lamb is angry that not enough people read these days (rightfully so, I would say, but that is beside the point) and continued his quest to make television out to be one of the main villains in Dolores life, by having the television lead her into another depression (which he lazily tries to attribute to sudden recurrent sad feelings about Dante, but it doesn't fly. We are basically left to assume that the TV just plain makes her lazy. Period.). And so Rita comes over and, apparently, yells that Dolores should have bought a car instead of a big TV, which leads Dolores to freak out and scream at her and Rita falls, and Dolores gets more depressed and starts walking around in 3-D glasses all the time. I mean, are you serious? Did I miss something? Just bullshit. Plain and simple. It's as if Lamb felt there wasn't enough heartache, that things were going too well and he didn't want to end the story just yet. (Which also explains the return of Mr. Pucci, because, after all, what story set in the mid 80's is complete without a personal reference to the AIDS epidemic?).

In summation, I felt the book was trite and contrived.(less)

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Aug 18, 2007

Lauren Collier rated it

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 he...more

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Mar 24, 2008

Claire rated it

Recommends it for: no one

I hate this book. Let me just get that out of the way first!

I also have to admit to having personal knowledge of the author - which in no way colors my opinion of this book. Mr. Lamb was a writing teacher at my high school in CT and actually helped me quite a bit in writing my college application essays. I got in to every school I applied for - even my reach school - and I am positive that the essay I wrote was the biggest tipping point. My essay was really good and it was wholly...moreI hate this book. Let me just get that out of the way first!

I also have to admit to having personal knowledge of the author - which in no way colors my opinion of this book. Mr. Lamb was a writing teacher at my high school in CT and actually helped me quite a bit in writing my college application essays. I got in to every school I applied for - even my reach school - and I am positive that the essay I wrote was the biggest tipping point. My essay was really good and it was wholly because of Mr. Lamb and his suggestions, pointers and all around encouragement. As a person, Mr. Lamb is wonderful and I will always remember him with high praise.

Which is part of the reason why I wanted to love this book so much. I loved Mr. Lamb. He was the teacher all the students wanted to work with and to have a book of his published! And on Oprah!!! So I picked it up and was so excited - I think I read it in two days or something.

That build up may explain my intense dislike for the book now. Too much hype to live up to. Regardless, I hated the main character. She was a "sad sack" type. Very much a Charlie Brown type - the character who is very nice, NEVER gets a break, is inexplicably constantly treated like crap by everyone around them without deserving it, and makes the trials of Job look like a tropical vacation. After while, I have to say - enough is enough!!! The book became incredibly predictable - not conventionally, i.e. boy meets girl, etc - but rather, if there was a situation described and you imagined the worst possible outcome, that is what would happen! Imagine yourself baking a cake. What's the worst that could happen? Burn the cake moments before the birthday party? Amateur. No, the correct answer is have the gas flowing but the pilot light go out until a spark happens when you slip on the floor in non-skid slippers causing a gigantic explosion that kills the neighbors and innocent children who happened to be arriving for the party at that exact moment but blowing you out the window to safety where you land relatively unharmed but now burned with guilt for the rest of your life. Oh yeah, and the neighborhood now hates you and has voted you out of the community so you are homeless. Now you get the idea. That is what this book reads like - page after page after page of it.

I hated the character (unbelievably wimpy), the story (the ridiculous situations and absurd outcomes), and the plot (which meandered and was like walking with a 2 year old - you had to stop and fully investigate anything shiny before being allowed to move on).

So if you are only somewhat depressed but not quite suicidal yet, this is the book for you. Everyone else should stay away in droves.

If you ever get a chance to meet the actual author, please do - you'll come out better for it.

And my last little comment, try to never read a lesbian sex scene written by a former teacher and mentor. You can never look at him the same again! I am actually glad that I have not met him since because I don't know if I could look at him the same way!!(less)

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Jun 12, 2007

Sammy rated it

Shelves: a-the-best

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...more

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Aug 28, 2007

Molly Woods rated it

Recommends it for: No one

It's like the author went to a women's shelter and picked up a pamphlet on everything bad that can happen to women. Then he went home and wrote a book in which all of those things happen to the main character or one of her family members or friends. This is the worst book I have ever read, and I read The Castle of Otranto for an English class in college.

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Dec 17, 2007

Liz rated it

Recommends it for: NO ONE!!

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

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Feb 22, 2007

JO D rated it

Recommends it for: Woman and men would love this book

Wally Lamb is one of my favorite writers. This particular book is written in a woman’s prospective. Her name is Dolores. It starts out when she was a child; explain in details the experiences she has with her parents. Then it goes on to reveal situations about her father, her mother’s mental health issues and how the main character deals with these issues. She deals with them by eating so excessively that she gains 260lbs as a young adult. She is a bitter and smart mouthed teen who doesn’t want ...more

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May 21, 2008

Julianna I rated it

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 des...more

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Mar 07, 2007

suehyla rated it

· review of another edition

Recommends it for: anyone already in therapy

Although well-written, this is one of those books that I finished in a few short days because I refused to put the book down until something good happened to the main character...

Yeah. Good luck with that one.

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Apr 26, 2008

Rachel rated it

I'm amazed by how many people hated this book. I had mixed feelings about it. Yes, the characters and situations were godawful, and at times it was more than a little contrived. A lot of people on this forum said it was hard to believe that so many horrible things could happen to one person - that I don't think is true. I have known people who have had that many horrible things happen to them. But some of the situations were pretty far-fetched. But I remember finding this book utterly...more

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Dec 27, 2007

Ruby rated it

Recommends it for: wally lamb fans

Shelves: still-crazy, fiction

When I read this, which is a long time ago now, I was not impressed by his lesbian character. If I read it correctly, the subtext says lesbianism is a pathology to which fat women are particularly susceptible. And lesbians are predatory.

Is plot message? Perhaps not, but when a man writes from the perspective of a woman, am I out of line to look at the plot with a critical eye? He is neither female nor, necessarily, lesbian.

Could what he described happen? Sure. But it's m...more

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Oct 06, 2007

Melissa McAllister rated it

Shelves: fiction

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 plagu...moreThis 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.
(less)

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Aug 16, 2008

Travis rated it

Recommends it for: no one alive

Recommended to Travis by: Oprah

Shelves: dont-waste-your-time

I don't understand how Wally Lamb was confused for a good author.

Is that too harsh? Okay, then I don't understand how Oprah could have hated us enough to unleash this painfully uninteresting, largely unlikeable character onto the mass-market shelves of greater America.

Is that still too harsh? Okay, then how about this: I read this when it was published back in '98, and still I feel compelled to write about how much I disliked it ten years later (and on my first day a...more

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Nov 20, 2008

m.g. rated it

Recommends it for: nah.

dude, i feel like this is the middlesex for fat people. i know lots of people liked it, were moved by it--but i gotta say, i hated on it. i read it quick in a hotel room i was staying at for a conference, then left it in the bedside drawer, as useless to me as the bible. in a world where marginalized voices are so rarely heard or given space, why not go to the source? it's not that i don't believe that we can't write from perspectives that we don't occupy ourselves, it's just that it's all t...more

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Nov 21, 2008

Kirsti rated it

Recommends it for: Oprah Winfrey completists

Recommended to Kirsti by: (sigh) Way too many people

Shelves: anger, fiction

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.

"...more

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Dec 17, 2008

Raquel rated it

As I've mentioned before, I hate weak characters. Even more, I hate weak characters with self-pity. This one was hard to swallow. Being obese does not give people the right to treat others like crap. And no one's life is easy, so that's not a good excuse for poor behavior either.

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Oct 29, 2007

Lisa rated it

· review of another edition

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 ...more

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May 31, 2007

Christina rated it

Shelves: fiction

Wally Lamb does an excellent job of writing from the perspective of a woman... I guess, I'm a woman, and I don't work that way. Everything I have ever read from Lamb has been wonderfully written with a good storyline that I could connect to, but I hated She's Come Undone.

The slothfulness and blaming done in this was ridiculous; I hated the characters. I wanted to yell at these people to get their acts together. I suppose this was the point; the book was well written and the chara...more

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May 04, 2008

Sally rated it

There were some really great moments, written with startling and vivid clarity. But in general, men writing as teenage girls really creeps me out.
Actually, with very few exceptions, I refuse to read adult books written by adults with a child/adolescent protagonist. The worst is when they attempt to write from that perspective, in the first.

That said, I liked this book ok - I would never snatch it away from a dear friend to preserve their sanity and time. But I would reco...more

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Oct 11, 2007

Ashley rated it

Shelves: chick-lit

i honestly couldn't tell you what i thought about this book. i'm not crazy about it, i'll tell you that much. i didn't know whether to hate Dolores or feel sorry for her. Like at times, I WANTED to feel sorry for her and sympathize for her but then she was a pretty nasty girl the way she treated some people and everything and the things that she did. I don't think because you have a hard life is really an excuse to be a bitch. I don't know. I thought it was going to be better the way people rave...more

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Apr 18, 2011

Peter rated it

Recommends it for: Most anyone

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?.....

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Sep 24, 2008

Kimberly rated it

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.

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Dec 15, 2008

Sarah rated it

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 ...more

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About Wally Lamb

Wally Lamb is the author of She's Come Undone, The Hour I First Believed, and I Know This Much Is True. Two were featured as selections of Oprah's Book Club. Lamb is the recipient of the Connecticut Center for the Book's Lifetime Achievement Award, the Connecticut Bar Association's Distinguished Public Service Award, the Connecticut Governor's Art Award, the Barnes & Noble Writers for Writers Awar...more

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“Love is like breathing, you take it in and let it out.” — 244 people liked it

“Accept what people offer. Drink their milkshakes. Take their love.” — 121 people liked it

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