'She's Come Undone' by Wally Lamb is a compelling coming-of-age story that follows the life of Dolores Price, a young girl who faces heart-wrenching challenges from childhood to adulthood. The novel delves into themes of love, loss, trauma, and self-discovery as Dolores navigates through a series of painful events that shape her character. The writing style of the book is noted for its ability to capture the raw emotions and struggles of the protagonist, drawing readers into Dolores' tumultuous journey with its vivid storytelling.
The plot of 'She's Come Undone' unfolds through Dolores' experiences with abuse, trauma, and self-destructive behaviors, showcasing her resilience and growth amidst adversity. Wally Lamb's narrative skillfully portrays the complexities of Dolores' life, from her struggles with body image and relationships to her quest for self-acceptance and redemption. The book's exploration of dark themes is balanced with moments of humor and hope, offering a poignant depiction of a flawed yet relatable protagonist's evolution over time.
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Sensitive Topics/Content Warnings
Content warnings include themes of childhood trauma, sexual assault, mental illness, obesity, substance abuse, and complex family dynamics.
Has Romance?
The novel contains a medium level of romance, particularly focusing on the protagonist's relationships and growth through love and heartbreak.
From The Publisher:
In this New York Times bestselling 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.
"Mine is a story of craving: an unreliable account of lusts and troubles that began, somehow, in 1956 on the day our free television was delivered...."
Meet Dolores Price. She's thirteen, wise-mouthed but wounded, having bid her childhood goodbye. Beached like a whale in front of her bedroom TV, she spends the next few years nourishing herself with the Mallomars, potato chips, and Pepsi her anxious mother supplies. When she finally rolls into young womanhood at 257 pounds, Dolores is no stronger and life is no kinder. But this time she's determined to rise to the occasion and give herself one more chance before really going belly up.
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. At once a fragile girl and a hard-edged cynic, so tough to love yet so inimitably lovable, Dolores is as poignantly real as our own imperfections. She's Come Undone includes a promise: you will never forget Dolores Price.
Ratings (58)
Incredible (16) | |
Loved It (24) | |
Liked It (6) | |
It Was OK (6) | |
Did Not Like (5) | |
Hated It (1) |
Reader Stats (108):
Read It (60) | |
Want To Read (31) | |
Did Not Finish (3) | |
Not Interested (14) |
1 comment(s)
Wow, I cannot believe all the negative reviews this book has gotten. Especially the reviews saying they found it hard to believe that so many horrible things could happen to one person... How is that so difficult to believe? Is it hard to believe that someone who grew up in a broken home, who was raped, would go on to carry that trauma and damage with them for life? And furthermore, that this said trauma and damage would continue to have a negative effect on their life, continuing the cycle of trauma and abuse?
It took me a while to get through this book, because honestly in parts I found it to be a bit of a slog to get through. But despite that, I greatly enjoyed this book and found it to be...I wouldn't say a powerful story, but maybe a humbling one. I actually think that Lamb captures the female POV very well, and Dolores was a fantastically dynamic character. I think perhaps what some people fail to realize is that Dolores is damaged, she has been hurt and abused. And people who have been hurt and abused often make choices that can be bad for them, decisions that can further hurt them even more down the line. I'm not saying this to place blame on people who have been abused because it isn't their fault at all. How can someone who has never been in a healthy, loving relationship know what a healthy, loving relationship looks like?
Throughout the story, Dolores is dealing with the hurt inflicted on her by her parents and her rapist; and we see that she never got the chance to experience a truly healthy relationship growing up. So it's no surprise that she is easily coerced by Dottie; she was probably craving simple human intimacy, and Dottie was the only person she could get that intimacy from at the time. And it's no surprise that her marriage to Dante is awful; she jumped right into it without truly knowing him because she fell in love with the
idea of who she thought Dante would be. And again, not only has she never been in a healthy relationship at this point, but the only other relationship she has to go off on is her parents', which we know was also unhealthy.
From a psychological standpoint, everything that happened to Dolores came as no surprise to me. And in fact, I thought that her mental health journey was handled wonderfully, and written very realistically. Time and time again Dolores comes back to how her mother "betrayed" her; she comes back to how her father left her; she comes back to her rape by Jack Speight. So it's very clear that their actions have had a lasting impact on her life, and continue to compound negatively throughout the story. In fact, for the opposite to happen, for things to just magically turn around and get better for Dolores, I think would have made for a less realistic story, because that's not often the trajectory that a person's mental health journey takes. People struggling with depression and past trauma often have many, many, many ups and downs on their way to healing, and we see this very accurately with Dolores' journey.
And it takes her until the end of the book, until she is in her 30s, for her to finally begin to overcome her damage. And even yet she is still not completely healed. Because childhood trauma is a neverending uphill battle; depression and anxiety and any mental illness is a neverending uphill battle. But she doesn't give up. And
that is what I took from this story.
I don't find Dolores to be a tragic character at all, but a refreshingly
real one.
What can you read after
She's Come Undone?
About the Author:
Wally Lamb is the author of six New York Times bestselling novels: I'll Take You There, We Are Water, Wishin' and Hopin', The Hour I First Believed, I Know This Much is True, and She's Come Undone. Lamb also edited Couldn't Keep It to Myself and I'll Fly Away, two volumes of essays from students in his writing workshop at York Correctional Institution, a women's prison in Connecticut, where he has been a volunteer facilitator for seventeen years. Lamb lives in Connecticut with his wife, Christine, and they have three sons.
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