She's Come Undone (Oprah's Book Club) Mass Market Paperback – Unabridged, June 1, 1998

This is my 3rd reading of this novel. I read it first as a teen and didn't quite have the full appreciation I have for it now. Delores Price is simply unforgettable. Lamb shares a richly developed story, with full characters you'll either love or hate or love AND hate. The complexity of Delores' psyche, her relationships with her parents, her struggles with her identity and the shattering, life-changing events she endures all make a fascinating, heart-rending page turner. Lamb also stays true to the political and socio-cultural climate of the 1960s-1980s, tracking Delores' life.While the heart of the novel develops with tragedy after tragedy, this one is for those who want a realistic dose of life ,to understand how crucial one's relationship with their parents can be, to delve into the mind of someone who sufferers from disordered eating and other unhealthy coping mechanisms. You'll also get the full teenage and adult angst of one who is simply to rally against the hard cards that life can sometimes deal out.If you want a novel you won't put down and a main character you will cheer on to the bitter end, this is it!

"She's Come Undone" chronicles the life of the female MC, Deloris, from the age of four until she's in her thirties. Deloris has a difficult life. She witnesses the failure of her parents' marriage as her father cheats on her mother, eventually leaving her and starting a new life of his own. Her mother has a nervous breakdown and is sent to a mental hospital. During this time, Deloris moves in with her strict, Catholic grandmother and is bullied by the children in her new school. Deloris' mother creates artwork while in the mental hospital and sends a painting to Deloris, who at first is ashamed of it and hides it, only later to love it. Deloris' mother completes her treatment at the mental hospital and returns home. She gets a job at a toll booth and begins dating. Deloris befriends people in the neighborhood, including Roberta, the tattoo artist across the street, much to her grandmother's dismay. She also befriends Jack, a man living upstairs with his wife. Jack and Deloris' mother begin to have an affair. He also takes advantage of Deloris when she turns thirteen and is in the eight grade. He rapes her. A week later, his wife Rita miscarries their baby. Deloris blames herself, thinking she led Jack on and God punished their dirty deed by killing the unborn child. Deloris confesses what happened to Roberta and Roberta tells Deloris' mother. Jack moves away and this is the beginning of Deloris' deep depression. She begins gaining weight, all the way up to 257lbs. Deloris's mother wants her to attend college, but she's adamant about not going. Unfortunately, her mother is killed and Deloris makes it her goal to attend college in memory of her mother.While in college, Deloris experiences a sexual relationship with another female, causing her to question her sexuality. She also steals her roommates letters from her boyfriend and longs for the boyfriend to be her boyfriend. A guy her roommate is sleeping with ends up assaulting Deloris at a part. Afterwards, Deloris freaks out and leaves town. She attempts suicide by drowning in a place where whales have mysteriously began beaching themselves, but her mother's friend, whom she had called and spoken oddly to before she went into the ocean, sent help. For the next seven years her mother's friend pays for Deloris to live at a mental health facility.During her stay at the mental hospital, Deloris learns how to stop overeating. She visualizes the food with mold on it. She eventually slims down to around 130-something lbs. While she's in treatment, she begins working at a photo developing store and receives a roll of film with pictures of Dante, her roommate's boyfriend she once lusted over. Deloris researches until she finds where Dante lives. She abruptly stops her treatment and moves into the same apartment complex as Dante.Dante and Deloris strike up a friendship and she becomes pregnant, all while not revealing she secretly knows him and once sneaked his letters and pictures form his ex girlfriend. Dante is not the same man as he was in the letters. He once believed in God and wanted to be a minister, now he doesn't. He once seemed like a loving man, now he gets angry when he finds out Deloris is pregnant and pressure her into an abortion. Deloris has the abortion because she's so scared he will leave her. They later get married and she finds out that he's secretly had an affair with one of his high school students.Deloris end up living back at her grandmother's house after her death. She and Dante have divorced. She begins taking care of Roberta, gets a job, and goes back to college. During this time, she meets a man and falls in love, but doesn't believe in happily ever after. Instead, she asks him to help her conceive a child and he agrees, but they fail again and again. They two eventually marry and try in vetro. The book finishes without explaining if the two become pregnant.What I loved about the book: the somber, sad tone continued throughout the book. This book was a period piece, set back in the seventies, so controversial subject matter such as racism, homosexuality, abortion, drugs, etc etc was touched on and in such a graceful manner. I loved that Deloris got her maybe happily ever after. We're not sure, since the baby wasn't conceived yet, but the ending with her sighting the whale was spectacular and symbolic.What I didn't love: when she left before completing treatment at the mental health facility. I worried about this because I don't want people thinking it's okay to leave and not complete treatment. I DO like that you continued to let her character mess up, because that showed she made decisions that only someone who hadn't completed treatment would make. Still, I hope people know that completing treatment is best and not to try to "fix yourself" without the help of others.All in all, this book was wonderful. The best in angst.

I have a tough time with self sabotage, maybe we all do because we are all guilty of it. Regardless, I couldn’t put this book down. I know I’m late to the game, everyone else I know read this years ago, but I’m happy I finally got to it. Delores’ story is wild and winding. You really have to keep going to find out what crazy follows as well as to know if she finally finds connectedness!

I was barely a teenager when this book was released, and at that time, I was very similar to Dolores, although I didn't know it yet. I was miserably obese, having a tough time with my small little life, nervous about starting high school, and just trying to make my way in the world. I spent my allowance on this book, right before spending a summer vacation with my parents at our family cabin.I read the book in two days. Then I read it again. And again. And many more times since then, as this book helped me through high school, and the five years of my life that have passed since graduating. I'm a working girl now, and this book still brings me comfort late at night, when things don't seem to make sense.The central point of the book, of course, is that the character of Dolores Price is written with a realness unrivaled in any book I've read before. She could be me, she could be you, your daughter, your best friend. Wally Lamb pens her life with a sincerity and grace that makes your heart weep for her - and laugh, and pray for her, and wonder what on earth is going to happen to her next. When you read this book, you will laugh and relate to Dolores. You will fall in love with Dante Davis. You will cry and smile reading about Mr. Pucci, and you will fume angrily over the Pysyk twins. Dolores' grandmother will make you laugh and perhaps think of your OWN grandmother, and you will sincerely feel something in your heart for Dolores' poor, wretched mother. This book might even change you in some way. For the better, of course!I know I'm rambling, and this probably isn't a very good review, since I can't help getting emotional over a silly stack of bound paper that happens to be called "She's Come Undone," but I can't help it. This book helped me deal with my life, and I truly hope that you'll find something of yourself here, and maybe your own life. If and when you do, I have no doubt that you will be comforted. At the very least, you will certainly be entertained by Dolores Price, in what I consider to be Wally Lamb's best book.As for my copy of this book, it is now worn and tattered, the pages have been underlined and I've even written notes in the margins. I've spilled everything on the cover, from plain old water to bright purple candle wax. This book has been loved, memorized, lived and cherished, as any truly good book should be. I even had to wrap the outer binding (as well as some of the inside pages) with packaging tape to keep the whole thing from falling apart!I wish I could write more about the plot, the characters, the vivid imagery and sometimes-hysterically-funny dialogue that takes place in this book, but to do so would ruin the magic for any readers who are new to this book. I want it to be completely fresh, and not spoil too much for new readers. The book is good enough that I feel like I can tell you to just buy it, right now, and you don't need me to tell you anything more about it. It's THAT good.Buy "She's Come Undone." Live it, love it, underline your favorite parts, spill things on it, keep it by your bed. You won't regret it.