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Product Description
From Amazon
Oprah Book Club® Selection, January 1997: "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." So begins the story of Dolores Price, the unconventional heroine of Wally Lamb's She's Come Undone. Dolores is a class-A emotional basket case, and why shouldn't she be? She's suffered almost every abuse and familial travesty that exists: Her father is a violent, philandering liar; her mother has the mental and emotional consistency of Jell-O; and the men in her life are probably the gender's most loathsome creatures. But Dolores is no quitter; she battles her woes with a sense of self-indulgence and gluttony rivaled only by Henry VIII. Hers is a dysfunctional Wonder Years, where growing up in the golden era was anything but ideal. While most kids her age were dealing with the monumental importance of the latest Beatles single and how college turned an older sibling into a long-haired hippie, Dolores was grappling with such issues as divorce, rape, and mental illness. Whether you're disgusted by her antics or moved by her pathetic ploys, you'll be drawn into Dolores's warped, hilarious, Mallomar-munching world.
From Publishers Weekly
In this engaging first novel, narrator Dolores Price recounts her life story from age four to age 40. The troubled product of a stormy marriage, she is already sipping Maalox in grade school. Then her father walks out on her mother, who suffers a nervous collapse, and Dolores moves to her repressive grandmother's house in Rhode Island. By the time she reaches eighth grade, she has only one friend: a boarder who eventually rapes her. Anesthetizing herself with junk food and soap operas, Dolores becomes an obese, isolated young woman who attempts suicide during her first semester in college and spends seven years in a mental institution. Oddly enough, this relentless parade of disasters makes for interesting reading. The author keenly evokes his protagonist's profound alienation and self-loathing, endowing Dolores with a bleak sense of humor that keeps readers rooting for her. Ironically, the book itself "comes undone" as its heroine develops self-esteem, at which point an absorbing portrait of a woman on a collision course with her problems turns into a disappointing series of cliches about love, forgiveness and Dolores's ticking biological clock. Nonetheless, this is a promising debut.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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First Sentence
IN ONE OF MY EARLIEST MEMORIES, MY MOTHER AND I ARE ON the front porch of our rented Carter Avenue house watching two delivery men carry our brand-new television set up the steps. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
IN ONE OF MY EARLIEST MEMORIES, MY MOTHER AND I ARE ON the front porch of our rented Carter Avenue house watching two delivery men carry our brand-new television set up the steps. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Sad but true,
By Brenda E. (Vancouver) - See all my reviews
This review is from: She's Come Undone (Mass Market Paperback)
Dolores is the main characeter in his Wally Lamb novel--not a short novel either, I might add---and while one would expect to be put off by her, Lamb somehow makes us watch---nay, want to see where she's going, how, when, why, and ever other question you can think of. This is a fascinating tale, and one that will keep you glued to the pages of this remarkable book, even if it's not the current page-turner like Nora Robert's "Spellbound" or McCrae's "Katzenjammer." Frankly, I thought it was just great and I'd recommend it to anyone who's interested in serious literature.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Comes in like a lion, goes out like a . . . .,
This review is from: She's Come Undone (Mass Market Paperback)
If you're like me, you tend to read all the Oprah selections ("A Virtuous Woman," "Ellen Foster," "Bark of the Dogwood," "Fall on Your Knees"), so it should come as no surprise that "She's Come Undone" made her list and mine as well. I like Lamb, but the guy does not write short books. Delores is the main character in this latest novel, and she is quite the unlikable person. But something about the way Lamb paints her is unique and welcome to WANT to know more about her---to see what makes her tick. And boy, do we get an earful. Delores eventually finds her place in the world, but not before a long trial and error process. As if the story itself isn't good enough to entice you to buy this book, Lamb's excellent writing style is superb and makes for an easy pleasurable read.Also recommended: Fall on Your Knees and the novel Bark of the Dogwood
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
All done up,
This review is from: She's Come Undone (Mass Market Paperback)
Our book club recently read three great, great books, one of which was SHE'S COME UNDONE. The other two were LIFE OF PI and Jackson McCrae's CHILDREN'S CORNER. I was so impressed with Oprah's other recommendations; I had to try this one, despite the cover. It was definitely worth it. Wally Lamb writes a humorous, poignant story, but what I appreciated the most was that he never cut his heroine any slack. He never cheated the story on her behalf. When she was good, she was realistically good, and when she was bad, she was just as real, at times horrid. I must admit I really hated her at one point, when she did something I could not excuse, whatever her reasons. But I never stopped loving her, or rooting for her; I even catch myself wondering how she's doing now. The book does more than tug at your heartstrings, though. Lamb has crafted a artful work that challenges as it entertains.
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