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She's Come Undone
She's Come Undone
She's Come Undone
Audiobook (abridged)5 hours

She's Come Undone

Written by Wally Lamb

Narrated by Kathy Najimy

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

4/5

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About this audiobook

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.
LanguageEnglish
Release dateMar 1, 1997
ISBN9780743519410
Author

Wally Lamb

Wally Lamb is the author of five New York Times bestselling novels: She’s Come Undone, I Know This Much Is True, The Hour I First Believed, Wishin’ and Hopin’, and We Are Water. His first two works of fiction, She’s Come Undone and I Know This Much Is True, were both #1 New York Times bestsellers and selections of Oprah’s Book Club. Lamb edited Couldn’t Keep It to Myself, I’ll Fly Away, and You Don’t Know Me, three 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 two decades. He lives in Connecticut and New York.

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Reviews for She's Come Undone

Rating: 3.8191783413810483 out of 5 stars
4/5

3,968 ratings131 reviews

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  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Being the same age of the main character, I could easily relate to her.
    It is a great story.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    While reading Wally Lamb's She's Come Undone back in the summer of 2003, there were two things that I just couldn't stop thinking about: The Guess Who's classic song, and the Lee Philips-directed film, The Girl Most Likely To (1973).

    A remarkable novel, She's Come Undone is a coming-of-age, heartstrings-tugger about a girl named Delores who grapples with childhood obesity, and the maltreatment she endures from others?including her wayward mother?as the result of it.

    Delores undergoes quite a bit in her life. And I personally loved and felt a great deal of empathy towards her, considering that my own childhood included battling the bulge.
    They all?even her fellow college coeds?mistreat the fat girl, Delores, but all of that begins to change after a distraught and suicidal Delores one day finds herself washed ashore and face-to-face with a beached whale ...

    She's Come Undone is one of the greatest books that I've ever read. And it's no surprise that Ms. Oprah selected it as a must-read for her book club. Five stars.
  • Rating: 1 out of 5 stars
    1/5
    didn't finish it. Protagonist was loathsome.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Amazing book and very cathartic for anyone that has suffered through trauma or feeling outside the rest of the world.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    For some reason this has always been on my list of books to read and now I have read it. I am not disappointed. It was a beautiful story.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    First Oprah book I read. I related to it so well that I wrote to Oprah's club to be included and was a finalist and they called me to possibly come to the show. I was so excited but I didn't get on in the final cut. However, I found Wally Lamb's book so engaging and related to it so much that I almost felt it was about me in many instances. I hated for it to end!
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I read the book, I liked the book but I cannot even begin to tell you how annoying and depressing the character of Delores was throughout the book.I mean I just wanted to really, you know, slap the eyebrows off her face. Yes she went through some trying times but the negativity was overwhelming, just too much but really, what more can you expect but gosh...SLAP! ok much better.Wally Lamb is wonderful and deserves to be read. But Delores, she needs to come undone with a big 'ole snap out of it slap.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    This was not a great book, but it was a good book. Alot of it was very sad but I found it realistic. It did kinda go on and on though.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Well, I read this back when it was very popular, and I don't remember liking it very much. This always happens to me--those books that seem so meaningful to other readers fall flat for me. But I do remember thinking that the protagonist was just not a very believable person to me. It's a book that supposed to be for women but didn't seem to "get" women--at least, that's how I remember it.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I'm on my second reading of this book. It's been about 4 years since I last read it, and I'm enjoying it again. Wally Lamb hooked me with the first sentence, and I'm finding it hard to put this book down, once again. This book is a keeper on my book shelf. I'm sure this won't be the last time I read it. I keep finding things I missed the first time around, and I'm sure I will do the same for each additional reads.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    Only because students selected this for our last book club title have I trudged all the way through this. I just really hate the story. There is NO hope, NO humor . . . I'm having a hard time with this. I can't understand how it's earned the average rating it has. Please tell me what I'm missing!!
  • Rating: 1 out of 5 stars
    1/5
    I actually never finished it. I didn't like the girl's rotten attitude that came from nowhere and I think I've read enough books about rape for a while. Maybe I'll visit it again someday.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I liked this book. A lot of the scenarios are a little over the top, but then again, I like that sort of thing which is why I prefer fiction books over non-fiction. I did like Lamb's other novel better though-- I Know This Much is True.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    A coming of age story about Dolores Price, a woman for whom life just did not go her way. Much was her own doing and her thought process. Somehow, she keeps moving on in this story to what she feels is the right way, for her.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I fell in love with Dolores within the first couple of chapters. I don't think she had "come undone" as much as I think she was already broken, and being raised in an unstable home didn't help any with putting the broken bits back together, The first half of this book was spectacular, but once again as in Wally Lamb's other book "I know This Much Is True" I hated the therapist, the therapy and the time Dolores spent in it. My interest really waned in that 3 quarters or so of the book and I was as happy as Dolores herself to be done with it. The last quarter of the book thankfully had nothing to do with the psychiatrist and pretty much went back to being a spectacular story.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Hard to believe Wally isn't really a woman. An honest story about the weight of lies.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I was tricked into reading this. Like the true book snob I am, I have a rule that I will not read any Oprah books. A friend of mine, knowing the rule, suckered me into reading this one without telling me that it was an Oprah book. I found out mid-way through. I think that's why I really liked the book but tired of it towards the end. I'm such a snob. This is the life of Delores Price and better you should read about her life than meet her. Much of it is funny and lot of it tragic and twisted but it works.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Clever, witty, dramatic--sort of a dramedy. Good female POV from a male writer. Enjoyed it.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    At times I cared about Dolores and didn't want to stop reading. However, when the life-altering events happened (and there were many of them), I found the writing awkward and I disconnected from the novel. I was hoping for a great ending, but was disappointed. The novel was just okay - not great, but not awful.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I liked this book. A lot of the scenarios are a little over the top, but then again, I like that sort of thing which is why I prefer fiction books over non-fiction. I did like Lamb's other novel better though-- I Know This Much is True.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I didn't love it. At times, I hated Dolores. At times, I was Dolores. This is definitely one of those books I wish goodreads did half stars for because I'm torn between a 3 or 4 star rating. There were some beautiful moments though and those are the parts that stand out and make me lean closer to a 4. I'll probably change my rating once I sit down to review.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I have strong feelings about this book I just don't know what they are. I'm honestly kind of speechless. I think it was great? Hell, what happened? What did I read? How do you describe such a complex and... uncomplicated book? It's a coming of age story, an awakening, an odyssey of emotional and mental health. It's all over the place. It all centers around Dolores Price, a young girl who isn't the most emotionally stable. She starts off as a fragile little thing and balloons up into a fat, depressed cynic, and then spends the rest of her life roller coasting around until she finds some sort of balance. It's a discussion of women's rights, religion, mental health, family dynamics, romantic relationships, and more. She is a complex, intriguing heroine/villain/comedic actress. Honestly I can't describe this book and do it justice. It takes a little to get into, but one you do, buckle up.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    “If you want your prayers answered, get up off your knees and do something about them.”The central character of this novel is Dolores Price, a 40-year-old woman who recounts her life from an innocent 4 year old in 1956 Connecticut through her painful progress into adulthood to middle age.Dolores, is the sole surviving child of a totally dysfunctional marriage, a younger brother having been strangled by the umbilical cord during birth. Her mother, Bernice, never quite recovers from this loss whilst Dolores's father, Tony, is an occasionally abusive husband and womaniser. As Dolores's childhood progresses, her parents' marriage collapses, her mother has a mental breakdown leading to her being confined to a state hospital, and she is forced move to live with her maternal grandmother, Thelma Holland. Mrs. Holland is a dutiful but generally ineffective guardian who outwardly is unable to offer much comfort to both her daughter and slowly disintegrating granddaughter. When 13 years old Dolores is raped by one of her grandmother's upstairs tenants, then her mother Bernice, is later killed in a freak accident Dolores knows that she can't turn to her grandmother for solace, instead she retreats into binge eating hiding behind a mountain of fat, both of which temporarily protect her from further physical assault.To try to fulfil her dead mother's final wishes Dolores enrols at college. There she becomes the room-mate of Katherine (Kippy) Strednicki, who is only really interested in more superficial concerns. However, Kippy has an apparently saintly boyfriend back home who has rejected her sexual overtures believing that sex before marriage is sinful. When Kippy's boyfriend,Dante Davis, sends Kippy nude photos of himself Dolores intercepts them and keeps them for herself. Dante becomes her obsession.After a failed year at college and following a similarly failed suicide attempt, Dolores spends seven years in a private mental hospital where she recovers both her mental and physical equilibrium. On departure she sets out to find and win Dante. She succeeds in this widely fantastic plan, only to suffer further humiliation at his hands. Throughout everything, Dolores clings to a frail notion of family by writing to her grandmother, lying about her own miserable life whilst expressing affection that are never satisfactorily reciprocated.Throughout the novel I found rooting for Dolores in the hope that she would overcome all her previous adversity and find peace and happiness. In a way she does. In the latter stages of the book the author rather strays into some of the hot social and political topics of the day,namely abortion and infertility, AIDS, Parkinson's and the plight of the whales which is a bit of a shame in what otherwise is an intensely introspective novel. The book's suspense depends more on emotions rather than events, and its hard not sympathize with Dolores. This is a story of survival.Considering that this is Lamb's first novel he writes convincingly in the voice of a female, tracing her life from 4 to 40 (or at least in the opinion of this male reader anyway) and despite the tragic events at times made me smile. Yet somehow it failed to really hit the mark (the dalliance with the the Political issues of the day certainly didn't help) culminating in a relatively low mark. A good effort but no banana.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Delores' character is lovable and annoying at times. She's just like a real human, isn't she? :PBut anyways, really, there were some parts of the book where I'm just like "REALLY????" flabbergasted, and other times I was just like "Yes girl, take the higher road!" and just wanted to be like her in instances. Overall, it's a wonderful book that really gets you thinking about YOU at times because you reflect so much after.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Meet Dolores, a smart mouthed, bitter 13 year-old girl who deals with situations by eating. By the time she’s ready to go off to college, she’s obese, and she learns just how cruel the world can be. She hits rock bottom, but that allows her to find herself and go after what she wants.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Warning! She's Come Undone by Wally Lamb will not let go of you until you finish the book. I have had this book on my shelf for a long time but decided to tackle it recently. My copy is 465 pages and not in big print but with dark ink, thank goodness.I have been reading books lately that have a common theme, obesity and dysfunctional families. Since I have always had a weight problem since I was twelve I am holding onto the main character, Dolores Price's tip to imagining mold on the food that you want to avoid. There is much more to this tornado of a book, starting when Dolores was only five years old when her father deserted his family, through having a mother dealing with mental illness. and only finding love through the consumption of food. If things got really bad, she would eat as fast as she could, trying to numb herself against a life that she could barely survive. She learns to protect herself with bad language and take outrageous revenge to even with people as she gets older. She has periods of understanding why she does things.What really amazes me is how Wally Lamb could write this book full of female problems without being female himself. Also he gets it so right with how people who are obese feel about themselves and also what it is like having a mother who is mentally ill and then also what the depths of depression is like. I had great difficulty in putting this book down and I am very impressed with his convincing writing. At times I wanted to tell Delores, " No, stop and think about this first before you do it but she didn't listen to me!I highly recommend this very emotional coming of age journey to everyone.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Listened to this on CD while driving to Charleston. I was crying so hard, I missed my exit and didn't realize until 30 minutes later! Very touching.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I read this several years ago, so I'm a little fuzzy on the storyline, but I do remember I liked it. (yeah, that was super helpful.. you're welcome)
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Dark and disturbing but in its own way quite brilliant. It's been a long time since I read it, but my memory is that it left me with a similar feeling to Janet Fitch's work, somewhere in between Paint It Black (which was beautiful and dark but somehow not as good as her first) and White Oleander (which blew me away and remains one of my favorite books of all time).
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Our book club chose this book because the cover art and jacket blurbs led us to believe it would be "lighter fare." Even though it wasn't what we expected, we really enjoyed it and were rooting for the heroine.Dolores Price is a pretty pathetic and sad young woman - with good reason! But I liked the writing and had to keep reminding myself it was written by a man. I wish he would write a sequel so we find out what happens to her. I firmly believe Dolores rises above her circumstances in the end.