Rating: 
Summary: Contrived, depressing, waste of an evening
Review: I was fascinated by the book reviews on the cover. Being overweight myself, I thought the character was someone I could relate to. However, Dolores gives overweight people, and women in general a bad name. Her character is Judy Blooms Blubber meets Steven King. She is mean, hateful and vicious before she was raped and even before her parents fought. I was disgusted with her in the first chapter, and the feeling did not die. The author has no sense of what is like to be an adolescent girl. Lamb seemed to use Dolores's weight as the avenue for the reader pity. His use of language was pathetic and his characterization were cookie cutter of a dysfunction home. This novel was outlined carefully to pull at heart strings, yet it pushes every ounce of sympathy for the main character out the door along with my respect for Oprah for recommending this book.
Rating: 
Summary: Amazing literary skills
Review: This book was one that I could not put down. I began it during a holdiay break, and finished it in 4 days, amid all the holiday craziness. I thought that Wally Lamb did an amazing job keeping the reader interested and keeping the story going. Not once did the story go stale as so many current reads do. One of the 10 best I've read.
Rating: 
Summary: An Emotionally Moving Story
Review: While reading Wally Lamb's "She's Come Undone", I was reminded of my own childhood. Although, I didn't grow up in the late 50's and early 60's, I was able to relate to many of Dolores Price's experiences in her emotionally turbulent childhood.Dolores' life revolved around hiding and trying to escape the pain of her childhood by using the few tools that were available to her. She felt pretty helpless, so she spent most of her life hiding in food or losing herself in television. She did this because of a fear of being hurt by those around her, and she didn't have a strong adult to care for her emotional needs as a child. The early part of this novel can be pretty emotionally draining. Because the story is so well written, you feel as if you're with Dolores as she experiences every childhood trauma. At points, you feel just as helpless as Dolores; however, once you pass the middle, the story's emotional level elevates, and it doesn't tug at your heartstrings nearly as much as it does in the beginning. All in all, it's a very well-written story; however, I wouldn't recommend it to any person who is struggling with the memory of child abuse or any other traumatic childhood experience.
Rating:
Summary: No more picks from Oprah
Review: I bought this book because I wanted to see what all the fuss was about; frankly, I'm still wondering. I didn't find it the least bit entertaining and have to wonder what Oprah saw in it that made her want to share it with the rest of America. Other reviews seem divided along gender lines and I have to go along with the trend. Dolores Price has had a horrible life--taunted at school, raped by a neighbor, and misled by her first husband. She loses her father to divorce, then her mother, first to a nervous breakdown, then to a fatal accident. And all that before she's 25. This is entertainment?!?!?!?! Strangely enough, I did like how she forged her own extended family (Roberta, Allyson and her baby, Mr. Pucci) after her biological family died and she was left alone. But until that happened in the last 50 pages, this book is a total downer. And I know there's some sort of allegorical significance to the whales, but Wally Lamb is no Herman Melville; his attempt at a modern, feminine "Moby Dick" was wasted on me. I won't be letting Oprah pick any more reading material for me. Next time I see the "Oprah's Book Club" logo on a book, I'll be sure to run...not walk...RUN the other way!!
Rating:
Summary: I'm going to buy Wally Lamb's other book tomorrow
Review: I love this book! I'm not sure if it's a "great" novel, or even a "good" novel. I am sure that the author is a great storyteller. Some other customers have said that the character has a "bad attitude," or that the main character is too depressing. I have to disagree -- I actually felt several times that Dolores she is too decisive and too quick to get over things. For example, how realistic is this? There's a bully who is after her in school. She figures out a way to get the bully in trouble. It works, and the bully needs to spend one hour each day with her nose up against the blackboard as punishment. Well, the bully never figures out WHO got her in trouble, and never comes back to break bones or do much worse things than she ever had before, to Dolores. Come on! (Was the author ever bullied?) Another example: once Dolores decides to split from her husband, she practically never looks back; there is just a brief moment when she wonders if she should really sign the divorce papers. Sometimes I feel like it's almost like "Beverley Hills 90210" -- where people breezily make up their minds, and then get on with their lives! (I can't relate.) On the other hand, I like the cruel ironies in it, like the way her mother had gotten out of the hospital and had gotten her life underway and had made plans, when she was suddenly killed. I also like the way that some things through the book continue to show up again and again -- like her mother's painting, or those naked Polaroids she carts around for years. These little bits of obsession are really endearing. I wish that there had been more of these things, actually. I wish she had gone back to her Etch A Sketch art, and had spent all her inheritance on Etch A Sketches, then finally had an exhibit at MoMa or something . . . But I should add -- tomorrow I will go buy the other Wally Lamb book, because my life is empty without his novel to come home to. That's how much I enjoyed it. By the way, to anybody who likes She's Come Undone, I would totally recommend The Stone Diaries, by Carol Shields. She has never been on Oprah, but still she's great! This book follows one quite ordinary woman from her birth to her death (I'm not spoiling anything, because this is all set out in the Table of Contents. The first chapter is Birth, and the last is Death.) This book full of extremely marvelous observations. My favorite one is when the main character's father has a heart attack. He falls down on the grass and thinks, "Why has it been so long since I've lain on the grass? Years ago, I used to lie on the grass sometimes." He also proceeds to think many extremely interesting things. It's similar to She's Come Undone, but The Stone Diaries is definitely a great book. They both tell a great story.
Rating:
Summary: The best
Review: I'm only 13 years old and i read this fascinating book! With all of the problems in Dolores's life she still made it to the point were she wanted to go. My favorite part in this book was the ending when she was on the boat it was amazing. I was so happy for her it was almost as if all her feelings were transfered some how into me. I'm really glad that my mom borrowed this preticullar book from my aunt because if she hadn't i wouldn't have got the chance to go through this make beleive caracters life. I think Wally Lamb is an excellent author and i hope i get to read another one of his novels. I really recommend this book to the world and remember the most important thing is not to judge a book by its cover!!!
Rating:
Summary: Too long, too depressing
Review: I feel like the last person in the world to read this book. It's been around and there are more than 1000 reviews of it already. But I felt pressed to put in my two cents. A couple of years ago I started Wally Lamb's other book - the one about the twin brothers and one is in the mental hospital and cut off his hand. After 30 or 40 pages I returned it to the library feeling that the subject was just too depressing. When I found "She's Come Undone" on audio cassette I figured I'd give it a try. Well, frankly I wish that I had left it on the shelf. The book is so depressing. I'm sure that there were lots of women who had similar experiences as Dolores that probably went over the edge after reading the book. The book brings back to mind every bad experience you ever had in your life because poor Dolores had them all. Didn't anything ever good happen to her? Granted she had a terrible life, but she accepted all that BS from Donte all of those years; she never made amends with her father; she didn't go to visit her grandmother; she treated people badly also. This is just not a book that I would recommend. Too depressing and too long.
Rating:
Summary: Lamb ¿Undoes¿ You¿
Review: When I first heard about Wally Lamb's "She's Come Undone," I was a bit skeptical. I heard it was good, but you never know what people are going to call good nowadays. Well, I must confess, I'm convinced. Lamb does not really pull you into the story with the first couple of chapters; but by chapter three, I was totally hooked. At first, it was disgust with the characters, and then intrigue by the plot, and finally emotional peaks and valleys as we see Dolores Price's life overlaying three decades of America. Sort of a woman's "Forest Gump." One truly amazing thing is that a man wrote this book. As you read it, you don't hear Wally Lamb, but instead Dolores. Wally must be deeply in touch with his feminine side, since this book reads more like a Terri McMillan or Sheri Reynolds novel. Excellent writing by Mr. Lamb! There is one warning that I would give potential readers of this book. If you are offended by references to strong sexuality and rape, this book might not be for you. On the up side, it is a story where a sometimes strong, sometimes weak woman heals from rape, overcomes her obesity, and develops a healthy sexuality. It also should be mentioned, that you'll find a lot of strong language in the novel, but you seem to find that everywhere in the media today. This language in this book follows our times. In summary, I would recommend "She's Come Undone." I think that most readers will enjoy the way the characters in the novel reflect and complement the backdrop of America in the 60's, 70's, and 80's. The "healing" theme is articulated well and conveyed powerfully in Mr. Lamb's writing. I hope that you find, as I did, that through Dolores' "undoing" and "redoing," you are redone a little too...
Rating:
Summary: Oh Good God, Come On People.......
Review: Did Oprah really read this book? For God's sake..... I think she just saw " unfortunate overweight girl" and put it on the list....I have seen better character development in Curious George books. Okay, let's talk about it. Fat girl eats raw meat, sits down beside whale, ( I feel you pain), eats a lot of food, battles all kinds of stuff that normal people never even think about, loses weight, has sex, and does okay...and through it all, manages to have a rather annoying personality and overall bad attitude. So, she is pretty much the girl that gets picked up at last call. Thumbs down.
Rating:
Summary: My red eyes
Review: This book took me on an emotional roller coaster. First, I hated it but read on anyway. The way Delores acted when she was fat was repulsive and I wanted to shake her. Then reading about her sexual encounters made me sick until...she met Dante and then of course sex was okay to read about. Rebirthing herself was wild at the institution, but I must tell you the most emotional part for me was this morning (I swore I would stay up until I finished it) at 200am when reading the last couple of chapters all I could do was cry, throw the book across the room, run to the bathroom and blow my nose, pick up the book again, cry, the words would get blurry, I would throw down the book again, run to the bathroom and blow my nose again....this went on and on until I thought I needed an ambulance! Finally, I finished it, sat in bed and cried for the longest time, blew my nose and replayed the whole book in my mind as I tried to fix my covers and turn out the light. When I woke up this morning my bed had white tissues falling out from under the covers landing all over the floor. Wow, what a book! What a wonderful ending due to love.
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