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Book Reviews Title She's
Come Undone Fiction-Net
Rating Buy It
From Amazon.co.uk - BUY
NOW! Cover
Story In his
extraordinary coming-of-age odyssey, Wally Lamb
invites us to hitch a wild ride on a journey of
love, pain and renewal. At once a fragile girl and
a hard-edged cynic, so tough to love yet so
inimitably lovable, Dolores Price is as poignantly
real as our own imperfections. We
Say In the author's
note at the end of the book, Wally Lamb tells us
that it took him nine years to complete 'She's Come
Undone'. It began as a short story, which he then
decided to expand into a novel. Lamb almost
abandoned it a couple of times but kept returning
to the story because he couldn't forget about the
character he had created in Dolores Price. In his
own words, 'I wanted to find out what was going to
happen to that troubled soul I had engendered and
then grown to love and worry over'. This is an
important point; it is the love and concern that
Lamb has for his main character that makes 'She's
Come Undone' an amazing book. Dolores' story
takes us though her childhood and into her early
thirties. It's an epic story and to try and
summarise the plot in a few sentences is a tall
order. After the break-up of her parents troubled
marriage and her mother's mental breakdown, Dolores
goes to live with her grandmother. The man living
in the upstairs part of the house rapes Dolores
when she is thirteen. This triggers a pattern of
self-hatred and over eating. Dolores becomes
massively overweight. 'She's Come Undone' is the
story of her hard-fought road to recovery, mentally
and then physically. Dolores is a
compelling character. She is frighteningly
believable. As I read her thoughts I began to wish
that I could talk back to her, so that I could try
and help her from my privileged position as someone
who could see the whole picture. Sometimes I wanted
to grab her shoulders, shake her and tell her to
stop making things worse for herself. She is so
clearly drawn that she almost literally leaps off
the page at you. It's a great credit to Wally Lamb
that he has created such a strong female
character. As for the plot,
there is not any point at which it sags or wanders.
The style is beautiful but simple. There are some
books that are clever pieces of writing, there are
some which are just great yarns and there are some
which have charismatic characters. Of course, the
best books have all these elements in various
measures. 'She's Come Undone' is the full package
with full measures of every aspect. It's a complete
story and a complete journey, albeit an
uncomfortable one at times. Review by: Rachel
Taylor |
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