She's Come Undone

Rating:
Summary: A Wonderful Read!
Review: I absolutely loved this book. Dolores Price is one of the most intriguing characters that I have ever encountered. I thoroughly enjoyed the book, though some parts were difficult (emotionally) to read. After I finished reading it, I passed it along to my older sister. Many ages and types of people can enjoy this book. However, some parts are graphic and can be disturbing, so be careful. I hope you enjoy She's Come Undone!

Rating:
Summary: she could have tried to help herself....
Review: From childhood to adulthood Dolores Price has had problems. The reason I didn't give this book five stars is because the book is about Dolores HAVING problems, not OVERCOMING them. Getting over her problems was just an afterthought. Dolores does nothing to solve anything, or even try to. She is forced into getting help, she never tries it herself. At the end of the book, when she is forty years old, she finally finds balance in her life. Dolores is pretty hard to relate to.

Wally Lamb created a surpassingly convincing situation though. Considering that nearly half the main characters die you don't ever think that it is unrealistic. Try summarizing the book for someone ... all you talk about is how many people died. Then you stop and think about how unrealistic that is. Wally Lamb didn't make you think of that.

A book taken from a girl's point of view, where most of the main characters are women, and most of the bad guys are men, Wally Lamb did an amazing job of writing this. I never knew a guy could write so well about women.

The title, "She's Come Undone" in my opinion, isn't that great of one. She should have been putting herself back together. And Lamb weaves the title into the book somewhere in the last ten pages ... an afterthought. The books mentions that she has come undone when she is already put back together! Not too great of a title.

But nonetheless an amazing book about a woman written by a man. A great book that held my attention. Well written. 4 stars.

Rating:
Summary: Okay read
Review: After reading I Know This Much is True, I read this book. Maybe if I had read it first, I would have liked it more, but it really pales when the two books are compared. I did find it easy to read and enjoyable. I was just expecting more.

Rating:
Summary: Awesomly good
Review: I was captivated by She's Come Undone; it was surprising that a book written this well from a female point of view was written by a man (sure, ok, that sounds very gender biased, but I was susprised.) The main character, Dolores, just springs to life off the page and makes the entire book a very pleasing read.

Rating:
Summary: Probably my favorite book ever
Review: Who could have thought that a girl as bitchy and as sassy as Dolores could be so loveable. I wish i knew her in real life. Not to sound like a geeky reviewer, but this book really will make you laugh and cry. Seriously, don't miss out on this one!

Rating:
Summary: Lamb's Best Novel
Review: The most notable thing about this book is the fact that is was written by a man. The book is about a young woman name Dolores, and the book is written from her point of view. It was very remarkable that the author related so well with and descibed in detail the thoughts, emotions and actions of a woman. More then once, I checked the cover to be sure that this book was indeed wrote by a man! As the for book itself, you will laugh, and you will cry as you go with Dolores from one tragedy to the next. I have read Lamb's other books, and this is by far the best so far.

Rating:
Summary: Want to read this again and again!
Review: What can I say about the book She's Come Undone which hasn't already been said? How much I loved the writing and character? How the author Wally Lamb captured a woman's life so poignantly? How this book just doesn't stop giving pleasure to readers all over the world? Or finally what a wonderful reading experience I had and wish others will also have?

I did come rather late to this reading party. Putting off this book for sometimes despite the rave reviews, I suddenly decided I just had to read what everybody had been talking about for some time. And what has been said over and over again by the many readers of this book is so true. This is one of those once in a lifetime reads and Dolores Price is one of those once in a lifetime characters. I know, for sure, that in the future this book will always appear on a top favorite book list of mine.

Dolores is one of those characters readers don't forget too quickly. The daughter of a philandering father and a mentally ill mother, Dolores is set up at an early age for disappointment and a difficult life. Eating her way through school, by the time she attends college she is grossly overweight with some previous expeiences which teach her the harsh realities of life. When Dolors is a young child, her father abadons the family while her mother spends time in mental hospitals leaving Dolores to be raised by a strict and critical grandmother. When Dolores's mother remarries and is killed afterwards, Dolores is left in the sole care of her grandmother's. When a truly devestating incident occurs, Dolores has nobody to turn to except food which becomes one of her only comforts. At the same time she builds a wall around herself for protection. While Dorlores contemplates giving up on life several times, she persists, she fights back and she endures. And how she becomes fulfilled and loved and loving and certainly not undone is the meat of this wonderful book.

Rating:
Summary: Enjoyed by a Skeptic of Modern Literature
Review: I don't usually enjoy modern books by writers who have not earned a place in the cannon of 20th Century literature, but Wally Lamb seemed to be on his way there with this book (however, I did not enjoy I Know This Much is True nearly as much).
I agree with other reviewers that I could not believe that this book was written by a man. Lamb has an insight into women and I loved the depth of the characters, and yet I never once had to struggle through droll paragraphs of narrative. Lamb does a good job of "showing and not telling" throughout the novel.
What kept me from giving this book five stars is that I was so disappointed with I Know This Much is True, which might not be fair to Lamb, but having read She's Come Undone first, I expected more from Lamb. This book is an entertaining and thought-provoking read.

Rating:
Summary: How can anyone forget her?
Review: Lamb made Dolores come alive! Page after page, I couldn't put it down.

Rating:
Summary: The real meaning of TRIUMPH
Review: I love this book; I've read it three times (for me, who gets bored of repetition, that's a big deal). Dolores definitely has a place in my heart.

What makes this book so great is that its heroine is a woman who was by many societal standards 'ugly'. And not in a remarkable way that would alienate her from us, but in a way that makes her resemble us. Throughout the book, which spans from her childhood to middle-age, she is lazy, overweight, obsessive, arrogant, self-pitiful, and more. But these are all vices that plaguethe lot of us in modern America. Raised by tv, pressured to be pretty and attractive, and meanwhile suffering the daily spurns from those we wish to be accepted by, whether that be family, friends, colleagues, or lovers.

This book is about someone who's felt so ugly for such a long period of time that her self-hatred consumes her. She becomes a very despicable person whose needs and wants are perverted by the rejection she's suffered in the past.

The triumph occurs when Dolores is able to forgive her past hateful self. After realizing that personal contentment lies in truly accepting oneself, past life and everything, she is able to love the whale within her.