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Women's Fiction
She's Come Undone (Oprah's Book Club (Paperback))

She's Come Undone (Oprah's Book Club (Paperback))

List Price: $14.95
Your Price: $10.17
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: She's Done Nicely
Review: In She Comes Undone, Wally Lamb creates a most memorable and damaged character with Dolores Price. The sheer pain and humilation this woman goes through from rape to obesity, a fractured family life and divorce tends to push the character and reader over the edge into depression and despair. Yet this is were Lamb gets his awards, the writing transitions smoothly as you see Delores progress from victim to a scared, jaded survivor. The book is written so well in first person one finds it hard to believe that the author is a man. The only drawback of the book was that the author throws every terrible possible scenerio at Delores to overcome which almost makes this a drama fest, however strong character development, a tight plot and keen details prevent She's Come Undone from being overdone.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Lamb's POV is on right on target.
Review: The actress best known as "Pat" on "Saturday Night Live" got it right when she said she was in awe of Wally Lamb. Lamb must have either a) been a woman in a previous life, b) been raised by a strong female community, and/or c) developed a helluva good ear for listening to people's dialogue. Whatever the reason, his portrayal of a young woman is sharp, respectful, and at times hilarious.

We follow Dolores Price from early childhood, filled with the usual suburbia dysfunction, to adolescence, filled with the usual parent-child tensions and sexual confusion (including sexual trauma), to adulthood, filled with more unusual than usual marital, social and personal conflicts. Don't let the heavy use of "usual" here fool you; Lamb has crafted a character who honestly and painfully chronicles her life as a child of divorce, a grossly overweight adolescent (at this point I was strongly reminded of Margaret Atwood's Lady Oracle), and an adult who pursues a sense of self-worth via people who really don't deserve someone so wonderful--particularly her selfish husband. Definitely check out the scene where Dolores discloses to her husband that she spent the better part of her college years stalking him, long before she ever met him in person and married him.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: My favorite book
Review: This has to be one of my favorite books of all time! I absolutely love it and read it at least once a year! This book will make you cry and smile. Wally Lamb is an excellent writer and he totally has me intrigued by how he can write this book all from a woman's voice! Wonderful book!!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: She's Come Undone
Review: This is one of those book were you can't wait till the next page and the page after that. I was hooked on it untill the very end. I must say I didn't understand the ending very much...but I will surely read it again.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Insightful Anthropology
Review: Use of detail emerges as Wally Lamb's real strength. Because he depicts such vivid places and characters, I was able to imagine coming of age in the '60's and '70's. When I evaluate the book in its time period, I see its merit. For one thing, all of the traumas that Dolores experiences are connected and plausible. It is not uncommon for a woman who is molested to find solace in food and to become obese as a defense against the vulnerability of that victim position. And then all of the self-esteem issues follow. I must say that women in my generation (I grew up a decade later--seventies and eighties) had a much better time of it than did those in Dolores's time. Our culture (even my college dorm--such a hotbed of female politics) was much more inclusive and tolerant than Hooten (?) Hall. I am a high school teacher now and am hoping that we are on a trend--that the "fat girl" is no longer an aberration. My students are not nearly as judgmental as young people were a few generations ago. I find She's Come Undone to be an interesting study of human relationships in an era known for its liberation--not very liberating and tolerant at all


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