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I read this years ago, and I still think of how much it moved me. Excellent read.
At times, she is flat-out unlikeable (particularly in the fat stages). Men are capable of writing from a woman's point of view just as women may write from the man's point of view. She goes from wacko to normal to wacko again. I read that book first, and a good thing too, or I never would have picked up another book by Lamb.
I don't think she ever had a happy moment in the entire book. This book is in a word, depressing. In a few more words, it is almost entirely devoid of hope.As many others have already mentioned, Dolores struggles from tragedy to tragedy without any kind of resolution or change in emotion. I cannot believe that Wally Lamb is the author of this book.No, not because he is a MAN, and because "Goodness, I can't believe a MAN should have such insight into the struggles of WOMEN as to dare write a book from a woman's point of view." Please. I mean really, those are essentially the choices she faced. In this book, I feel like I'm looking at a character with multiple-personality disorder.
When she decides to stand up for herself (on VERY RARE occasions), it feels jumpy and random. All this, and I haven't even gotten to the true meat of the story.
But she never changed, she never tried to change her situation, and she just kept plodding from one disaster to the next. Ever hear of a little book called "The Outsiders".No, I can't believe that he is the author of this book because it is truly a complete 180 from his wonderful, incredible second novel "I Know This Much Is True".
And yes, I did finish reading the book. When she finally begins to shed some baggage (both physically and metaphorically), she no longer even seems to be the same person.
Usually when a character triumphs over some kind of adverse event, their natures stay relatively the same. When a person goes through as much as she has, it is unbelievable, UNBELIEVABLE, that she would not: a) change herself b) change her environment/situation c) give up.
Sorry, Wally Lamb, I'm not buying it.
When people ask me what my favorite movie or favorite song, I never have a clear answer. I name a few that fall within the favorite category. Not so when it comes to the topic of books. When someone asks me what my favorite book is, the answer is simple - Wally Lamb's "She's Come Undone." Read it and fall in love.
She never really improved, she just expressed the crazy in slightly different ways. I am generally an easily pleased reader, but I could not wait to finish this book. If I had the ability to put a book down once I started, I would have done it with this book. I found Dolores so annoying that she actually put me into a bad mood. She is dramatic, whiny, and self-absorbed. Instead, I trudged through to the end, becoming more and more irritated with her character. The only redeeming quality of the book is that it does capture the long-felt impacts of traumatizing events, rather than having the main character go through a brief and trite journey to happiness as so many other books do.
I love this book, and never wanted to put it down. It's been a little while since I read it, but would recommend it to anyone as it's that memorable. I can't imagine anyone not identifying with the main character - everyone has experienced alienation and has been strongly motivated to search for what is real and true. This is beautifully written and you go through so many emotions with the main character, you just can't help but get drawn in.
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