Rating:  Summary: The most touching book I have ever read! Review: This book is truly wonderful! I loved how the writer (which was, amazingly a man) make me feel this poor girls pain. You could really understand what the girl is going through and it lets you really understand why the girl did so many weird things like she did. I recommend this book to everyone, even men. I think that they would enjoy it just as much.
Rating:  Summary: Eloquent, and with amazing details Review: If I wrote a novel like this, I might run out of eloquence before I could start another one! Wow! The thing that stands out about this book is the detail with which Dolores' memories are woven. Just as you might suddenly remember something that happened when you were seven combined with a friend from high school and maybe your ex-husband to top it all off, Dolores' life is woven through scenes, memories, and heartbreaking situations. I generally don't read books that include rape scenes, but I make an exception for this one because the rape negatively affected her for the next 30 years, which is what happens in real life. She is hateful in places, but hey, it's just a storybook, right? And such an enjoyable, absorbing one at that. A mature, intricate story of a normal person with a very unusual life.
Rating:  Summary: All of us know a Dolores Price Review: This is the first book that I have read by Lamb. The best part about this book is that you would NEVER be able to tell that it has been written by a man. All of us (women) know a Dolores Price. She's the girl at school that is overweight, the one with low self-esteem, the one that needs a friend. She is the girl at college that you dread to have as a roommate. She is the woman in your office that you don't want next to your cubicule. But most importantly, you will find a piece of yourself in Dolores. In this novel, that will keep you reading long after you have told yourself to go to bed, deals with everything from childhood bullies to adult romance. I enjoyed this book so much that I bought a copy for all of my friends.
Rating:  Summary: Don't start, unless you have time to finish!! Review: I absolutely could not put this book down, and was upset when I did finish, because I wanted to follow the characters further. An excellent read.
Rating:  Summary: Reality Check Review: This book is amazing. It captures the youthful identity crisis that occurs and shows the metamorphosis of a girl who suffered from it. Delores is very unsure of herself as a person. She met many people in her life who shaped who she was and how she viewed things. But in the end, she was left confused and depressed. She battled with her own criticisms everyday and struggled in life with low self-confidence. At the end of the book, she is free from everyone's judgenments including her own because she gets admitted into a mental institute. The people who help Delores there make her realize that she really is a beautiful person, so she essentially "Comes Undone." The book was depressing and full of pity for Delores, but sometimes it made you want to hate her for her spiteful cruel actions towards others. There were also weird creepy parts, but collectively the book was good. It showed problems that happen today which make it sound more plausible. The author also did a great job of portraying the emotions of Delores and many of the other female aspects that men usually can't accurately describe or understand.
Rating:  Summary: Depression City Review: I believe this book has got to be the single most depressing book I have ever read. Having finished it I feel like a wringed out dishtowel. Allthough depressing I cannot bring myself to say the book was boring. I found myself making extra time and staying up until 2am to find out what would happen next. Maybe because I associated somehow with the young Dolores and her troubles. It brought back feelings and painfull memories from my childhood. Things I haden't thought about in years. I guess the book was a kind of therapy, but still I don't see how it helped me. All I'm feeling afterwards is depression. The story follows Dolores Price from early childhood to her mid thirties. It shows how tragic events in a persons life can set of a sort of snowball effect, leading to more tragedy and unhappiness. Meeting and hearing of people with psycological problems I have often wondered what happened to that person to make them that way. Well this book cetainly gave me a clue. One day when I have children I will be very scared of making a mistake and put them in a situation that can psycologically maim them for life. It surpriced me that the author of this book is a man. I say it is quite brave of a male to take on a book that goes into the depth of a young woman as intimatly as it does. I have a hard time believing that he would ever know how the mind of a teenage woman operates, but yet I cannot say the book was unbelievable. Sometime it was acctually right on the spot. I don't know if I would recoment anybody to read this book. I did not find it extraordinary in any way. I picked it up and read it because I had seen a lot of good reviews on it many years ago and the book just seemed to be crossing my path alot. In the library, on the wrong bookshelf of the bookstore, in a friends house. I was imagining it as a sign. That I should read it. But now I don't know.
Rating:  Summary: a wonderful debut by a promising writer. Review: this book is brilliant...it's funny, sad, silly, hopeless and hopeful. amazing that a man can write so well from a female perspective (friends who've read it have spoke of looking at the name on the cover numerous times just to be sure it IS, in fact, written by a man). I look forward to reading more of Wally Lamb's novels!
Rating:  Summary: It seems at once extreme, but easy to identify with... Review: I admit there are times I get down about my life, about the "troubles" I have. Reading a book like this REALLY puts things into perspective! This book helped me both see some silly, self destructive things I do to myself, but also pointed out to me how wonderful life is! It's harsh; there are places where you just ask yourself, "Why am I reading about something so horrible?" but you're compelled to turn the page, to find out what happens next, to find out whether she'll finally go under, or pop back up again. As someone who has, for the first 29 years of my life, believed that life "should" be steady and predictible, reading a story about someone going up and over so many waves helps me get a little closer to reality, and not freak out so much about the things going on in MY life. I was surprised the author was male. Discussing this point with a friend, she said she felt much of the feel was stereotypical. If that's true, I must just be a stereotype, because I really identified strongly with a lot of the emotions that came as a result of being fat, going through puberty, trying to protect yourself from pain, etc.
Rating:  Summary: A Touching and Inspiring Book Review: She's Come Undone, the novel by Wally Lamb, gives us an overview of what Dolores' life leads to and how certain downfalls leave her in a great depression. The major things that affected Dolores' childhood was her father leaving her for another woman and being raped when she was fourteen by the upstairs tenant. Dolores felt all of these happened because of her and this left her in a great depression all throughout high school. She would try and make everything disappear through food, candy, cigarettes, and soap operas. Her high school career was a downfall and ended up graduating all because of her caring counselor at school. Before Dolores ends up attending college, her mother dies in a car accident. Dolores then goes off to college and befriends the janitor, her only friend, Dottie, who like Dolores is overweight. There are lots of small detail things that happen between college and the time she is admitted to the mental hospital, but they are not as relevant. When in the hospital Dolores ends up losing weight and goes through almost like a rebirth. When Dolores ends up leaving the hospital after seven years she finds a boyfriend named Dante, who was her ex-college roommates ex-boyfriend. The thing that makes Dolores depressed during this time is that Dante forces her to have an abortion and it makes Dolores hurt inside(feelings). Dante ends up leaving her after a long while and Dolores moves back to her grandmothers old house and meets a guy named Thayer from her college classes. Dolores and Thayer end up getting married and that is almost all we hear about that. Dolores kind of represents anyone in the world; even though her problems may have been greater than ours, we begin to see that her problems kind of shadow ours. Her persional tragedies end up making Dolores a stronger person in the end. She has a stronger sense of a family, the strength of will people possess, and about desperation and anxiety. This book is really emotional but has some kind of awkward moments. In the end you end up with a very memorable thought of Dolores and her future.
Rating:  Summary: This is Living the Life You Were Given Review: This book really touched me. It made me remember that we can only live the life we are given. In this book, Dolores Price is a young women who takes a lot of hits in life but keeps surviving. I really don't want to give away the whole book like other reviewers because you must experience the anger, the shock, the outrage, the sadness, the happiness, the anxiety, and the triumph without being forewarned. Some of the themes in this book include family, community, self esteem, love, acceptance, forgiveness, and friendship. You can't spend your life hating who you are and sacrificing yourself and your dignity to get others to accept you. It is hard to believe a man is behind the wonderful voice of Dolores Price, but Wally Lamb is very talented. Please pick this up, please read it, and please apply it to your life!
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