She's Come Undone by Wally Lamb

Synopsis :

Meet Dolores Price. She's a thirteen, wise-mouthed but wounded, having bid her childhood good-bye. Beached like a whale in front of her bedroom TV, she spends the next few years nourishing herself with the Mallomars, potato chips and Pepsi her anxious mother supplies.  When she finally rolls into young womanhood at 257 pounds. Dolores is no stronger and life is no kinder.  But this time she's determined to rise to the occasion and give herself one more chance before really going belly up.

In his extraordinary coming-of-age odyssey, Wally Lamb invites us to hitch a wild ride on a journey of love, pain and renewal with the most heartbreakingly comical heroine to come along in years.  At once a fragile girl and a hard-edged cynic, so tough to love yet so inimitably lovable, Dolores is as poignantly real as our own imperfections.  She's Come Undone includes a promise : you will never forget Dolores Price.


There's as many negative review about this book as there are positive comments especially about the fact that the author is a male writing about the coming of age of a girl.  Most common and immediate thoughts would be what would he know about being a girl?  I guess it's the same as being a writer of magic and wizards and vampires - I mean, we don't have any authors who are actual wizards and vampires, right?

All I feel is that Wally Lamb must have done lots of research and in not wanting any of his research material to go to waste, he dumps them all in this book.  I really pity Dolores Price.  She has to shoulder the burden of all that the author inflicted on her.  Her dad left the family when she's about ten, her mum had a mental breakdown subsequently she was raped when she was thirteen, she was super fat as that's the way she deals with her life, she tried to kill herself and was sent to a mental institute, she married someone who forced her to terminate her pregnancy, stole from her and cheated on her.  Subsequently, the author decided that that's too much for one person to take and decided to give her a break and we see a light in the end of the tunnel for Dolores.

It's a pretty easy book to read as well as it's pretty comical at times but I am sure you will find yourself either rooting for the main character or wanting to shake some sense into her.

If you do come across a copy, do check it out.