Book Review: She's Come Undone by Wally Lamb

Title: She's Come Undone
Author: Wally Lamb
ISBN: 0671003755

Dolores Price is four years old at the beginning of Wally Lamb's She's Come Undone, and the novel takes us with her through a story of love and betrayal, hatred and self-loathing, lies and deception, and finally understanding, forgiveness, and redemption.

Dolores must deal with the unraveling of her parents' marriage and her mother's slide into madness after losing a child, and her life isn't simplified when she is brutally raped. She does so by hiding herself away and losing herself in hours of mindless television and tons of junk food. It's as though she builds a wall of silence and obesity to protect herself from the pain that comes with human interaction. She copes with her status as an outsider by flinging invictive at anyone in her path, pushing away everyone who cares, or might care, for her as a human being.

As you follow Dolores' life journey, you will sometimes loathe her and sometimes love her. You'll find yourself cheering her on, hoping that she will make the right choices to create happiness for herself, and you may shed a tear for her failures. This is not a happy book, but it's an intensely gripping story.

This was a difficult read for me, as I identified too closely with Dolores as she punished herself for sins real and imagined against anyone unfortunate enough (in her eyes) to love her, and as she tried to find meaning in her life. The lessons seems to be, "Don't be afraid to live. Never be afraid to let others into your life and your heart. And, we're all just doing the best we know how." They're good lessons.