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She's Come Undone by Wally Lamb
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She's Come Undone

by Wally Lamb

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6,780100231 (3.86)113
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Showing 1-5 of 98 (next | show all)
I don't generally go for tragic coming-of-age tales. I picked this one up because it was loved by several of my fellow BookCrossers. It is the story of Delores Price and her issues with food, sex, love, and mental health. I related in ways that made me uncomfortable, yet following Delores as she coped was heartening. It was also a surprisingly funny book, considering all the drama. I was completely and unexpectedly sucked in, couldn't put it down. Definitely recommended. ( )
  melydia | Oct 28, 2009 |
Mr. Lamb tells the story of a woman who is a victim of a sexual assault as a first person account. And as such, he was applauded for being such an enlightened man to be able to tell such a story. I am most definitely NOT in this camp. To me, it felt like he was writing what a man THINKS a woman is experiencing when she goes through this kind of trauma. And he made his main character weak, which was offensive. We all need to jump off that bandwagon, because Mr. Lamb is not deserving of the accolades. ( )
  auntangi | Oct 16, 2009 |
I loved Wally Lamb's "I Know This Much is True" and while I was not expecting to like this one as much as that, I really had hoped to like it more than I did. I found this one very mediocre and really kind of wonder why many readers have rated it so high. It was just "okay" -- nothing spectacular & I wasn't blown away. I did think Lamb did a fairly good job of writing from a female's perspective, but I also think his writing was totally different in this (his first novel) in comparison to his sophomore novel. I have his third on my shelf & am quite curious to see how it compares as well. ( )
1 vote indygo88 | Sep 25, 2009 |
Written in such an honest style that I was able to feel the pain of the main character. ( )
  courtb | Aug 4, 2009 |
This book was seriously disturbing to me. However, I do not think that it was written to make people feel comfortable. The book was written to give us an honest depiction of the id in all of us that fights to get out. The protagonist of this novel sees things (and admits to seeing things) that most of us would never; she feels things that we all feel but would never admit to; and, she does unbelievable things that would horrify most of us. I think it is good to read material like this. It is a good starting point for a lot of conversation with others--better than a mediocre movie or television show.

Erin Dorman ( )
  edorman75 | Jul 16, 2009 |
Showing 1-5 of 98 (next | show all)
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Series (with order)
Canonical Title
Original publication date
People/Characters
Important places
Important events
Awards and honors
Epigraph
Our day will come
If we just wait awhile . . .


—Ruby and the Romantics
Toward dawn we shared with you
your hour of desolation,
the hugh lingering passion
of your unearthly outcry,
as you swung your blind head
toward us and laboriously opened
a bloodshot, glistening eye,
in which we swam with terror and recognition.

—From "The Wellfeet Whale"
by Stanley Kunitz
Dedication
To Christine,
who laughed and cried and lent me
to these characters.
First words
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. I'm excited because I've heard about but never seen television. The men are wearing work clothes the same color as the box they're hefting between them. Like the crabs at Fisherman's Cove, they ascend the cement stairs sideways. Here's the undependable part: my visual memory stubbornly insists that these men are President Eisenhower and Vice President Nixon.
Quotations
Last words
(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)
Disambiguation notice
Publisher's editors
Blurbers
Canonical titleShe's Come Undone
Original publication date1992-08-24
People/CharactersDolores Price, Bernice Holland / Bernice Price, Thelma Holland, Dante Davis, Thayer Kitchen, Jack Speight
Important placesVermont, USA, Cape Cod, Massachusetts, USA, Easterly, Rhode Island, USA
Awards and honorsNew York Times bestseller (Paperback Fiction, 1996), Los Angeles Times Book Awards’ Art Seidenbaum Prize for first fiction (1992), Oprah's Book Club selection (1996), New York Times Notable Book of the Year, Notable Book of the Year (People)
EpigraphOur day will come
If we just wait awhile . . .


—Ruby and the Romantics, Toward dawn we shared with you
your hour of desolation,
the hugh lingering passion
of your unearthly outcry,
as you swung your blind head
toward us and laboriously opened
a bloodshot, glistening eye,
in w... (show all)
DedicationTo Christine,
who laughed and cried and lent me
to these characters.
First wordsIn 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. I'm excited because I've heard about but nev... (show all)
Last words(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)
BlurbersLipman, Elinor, Wolitzer, Hilma, Diehl, Digby, Lott, Bret, McCloy, Kristin, Pelletier, Cathie
Book description

Amazon.com (ISBN 0671021001, Mass Market Paperback)

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.

(retrieved from Amazon Fri, 24 Apr 2009 07:58:23 -0400)

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