She’s Come Undone discussion

I loved this book. I'm shocked to see how many people hated it. I can understand some of the reviews from men who can't relate with a woman's perspective, but to hear the amount of dislike from women is what really floors me.

It's been a few years... but I loved it too.

I'm confused too. It's one of my favorites. I find that some women are very offended by rape talk. anything mentioning rape causes a lot of women to abhor the book/article or whatever. thats about all i can deduce for the hatred of this poetic book.

No, it's not because I'm offended or upset by "rape talk." I loathed this book because I thought it was poorly written, hackneyed, cheaply manipulative, and pretty much amounted to nothing more than a few episodes of Dr. Phil or Montel Williams strung together, and not even strung together especially skillfully.

And poetic? I'd agree, perhaps, that it's "poetic" in perhaps the same sense that poems beginning "Roses are red/violets are blue" or "There once was a man from Nantucket" are poetic. Anything more than that -- nuh-uh.

It's been awhile since I read it too, but I remember thinking it was really well done. I didn't find it hackneyed. I didn't find it particularly poetic either. I thought it was a well told story with distinct, believable, complex human characters.

Just finished the novel! I just wish there had been a happy ending. I know-- blah- blah! LOL! I'm just one of those girls that likes to see things end happily ever after! Poor Dolores couldn't get a break to save her life! She was a very believable character, and I enjoyed reading the book. I guess it always comes down to "different strokes for different folks." Since everybody has different personalities, some people are going to like something or dislike it! OH WELL--- that is what makes the world go 'round, eh??

totally loved this book also! I can't understand why anyone would put this book in the worst list.

I just finished this book for the first time, too, and I have to say that I absolutely loved it. I think that Dolores is a wonderfully realized character, and I find myself thinking about her still. I love that she is an average human being, with no special powers or talents, but that her sheer endurance and ability to survive her life is what makes her remarkable. Just like the bulk of us...

Jamie, don't you love it when characters in a book become so real that you still think about them?? I love it when that happens, and feel the same way that you feel about Dolores.

It's been quite a while since I read it, but the one scene that stuck with me and caused me to dislike the main character and therefore the book, was the thing with the fish tank (and I think she did some other destructive things in that scene as well).

I really like Wally Lamb's other books though…I push I Know This Much is True on everyone (preferably the audio version)! He's coming out with a new book soon, called The Hour I First Believed, and I'm looking forward to it.

It has been many years since I read this book, but I remember liking it quite a bit! Wally Lamb is a wonderful writer.

This book was awful and trite. The characters weren't so much characters as stock villains and heroes with no depth or rhyme or reason to their actions. I can't believe there are so many people who loved this book.

Lamb managed to make me care about an utterly dis-likable heroine. I wouldn't consider that a stock villain or hero. Then again, maybe you know more than I do about stock characters and techniques.
Everything Dolores did made me cringe but I couldn't stop turning the pages to find out what would happen next. I liked the fact that she kept making mistakes, even when it seemed like she might have finally grown up. The events were often implausible but what the hell, it's a novel.
Or maybe I just like it because the heroine screwed up over and over and over but somehow turned out ok in the end. That's sort of reassuring.

As someone who really likes the book, I think the issue is that the narrative is a bit weak. Still, for any woman who's ever faced something similar, the psychology is still very powerful - enough to completely redeem some of its more obvious flaws.

i loved the book as well. i haven't read it in awhile but it was one of the first books i read when i was a young adult and was transitioning from young adult books to adult books. there are some books i completely hate that are well loved so i don't find it offensive if someone hates something i loved so much. so i agree that it's different for each person.

It's been awhile since I read this book, but I have to say I was so frustrated.....everything that could happen to this girl happens to this girl. I wanted to scream. And at the end when she had this wonderful husband and a great stepson, she couldn't be happy. I remember halfway through this book being so frustrated I wanted to throw this book out the window. My husband was like "then stop reading it." But I had to finish....I told him "Oprah wouldn't do this to me...." lol. I hate trashing a book cause books speak differently to different people and I know alot of people love this book....and thats great! Thats what matters.

This is one of my all time favorites. Very well written.

One of my all-time favs also as is WallY lamb. I agree with Amy that a lot of women are offended by certain situations they're reading about. Now all of course, some have other reasons for disliking the book I'm sure but I know women who won't read anything with much language, too much sex, etc. There are women like that and they have every right to read what they chose. I however, LOVED the book and actually wondered the same thing when I first started reading many reviews about it. But then I focused on the so many great reviews also and forgot about the bad ones. No one will ever agree totally on anything! LOL

After the first hundred pages I knew I would not like "She's Come Undone." It was a labor of love to finish. Though I could appreciate and sympathize with the main character I just found her to be so whiny and victimized. This is more a reflection of the way I was raised more than anything. On to the next...

It's interesting how most people love it or hate it, but little in between. I quite enjoyed it. I've read it twice and hope to read it again soon. What I find most interesting, is that I particularly like it for the reasons most people don't like it. The "fish tank" incident--pissed me off. Everything kept happening to this girl/woman--she brought most of it onto herself. She was whiny and played the victim. She was a damaged soul and made the wrong(ish) choices in life, but she kept on going.
As for lack of depth, actions without rhyme or reason? Not everyone has to be, or even is deep. The author delved into some of her psyche and brushed the surface of what made her 'tick'. The rest is for us to figure out. She had plenty of reason to do what she did--she was messed up! She put herself into situations she did not know how to handle, so she freaked out and responded in the only way she knew how. We kept reading, hoping it would be better (happier), but.... Perhaps that is the reason why some people didn't like it. It didn't have the false reality of people being happy, deep/thoughtful, and living a full and prosperous life?!?

i did not like it and it had nothing to do with the fact that she was raped.

i thought it was fluffy and played into stereotypes, particularly around body size and sexuality. i found it sizist and homophobic and generally garbage.

people went ape-shit over it because it was written by a man, but who cares if a guy can write stereotypical crap about female subject matter? women write male points of view all the time and no one really gives a crap because male protagonists are seen more as the norm.

I liked the book a few years ago, when I read it with Oprah (I'm sure I was on maternity leave so I actually watched Oprah). I remember thinking that the book got a lot of buzz for having been written by a man--which doesn't shock me with this book nearly as much as Memoirs of a Geisha. That author really got into the female psyche some how!

Did you finish the book? There was a happy ending.

I loved the book because it dealt with the homophobic, sizist, and sexist natures of human beings. I don't think that the book itself was any of those things. Some characters obviously had those traits but the book defiantly did not set the tone that any of them were positive traits to have. As for homophobic I was ecstatic that such a profound love grew between Dolores and Mr. Pucci. In fact the healthiest and happiest relationship was between Mr. Pucci and his husband.

I absolutely could not put the book down!! I loved every page in it! Definitely a favorite of mine!

I found the book to be a bit shocking the first time I read it. I was a bit young to handle it I think, but a summer later, I re-read it and absolutely fell in love with it for the very reasons I was shocked in the first place. The dialogue is very frank, and could be taken offensively.However, that is what made the characters so real to me. True, it has moments of cliche,but I think it is a great book, and anyone that thinks it is horrible should read it again.

This is one of my favorite books ever. I will probably have to read this one again, which is something that I rarely do. I just thought that the main character was very relatable - she had real emotions and feelings that I could identify with. I was really impressed that it was a man who wrote this book, and also that it seemed to really get inside the female mind!

I, too, think it is interesting that the reaction to this book is either love or hate. Not too many "whatever" or "ok" or "so-so". To me, that is a sign of a great work of art. I hate Picasso's art. I'm not indifferent to it and that tells me it is great. Any creation that evokes that much strong emotional reacion is sucessful.

I loved this book! I think Dolores is an amazing, real, honest character. It seemed like it could easily be someone's life story. Dolores felt so real to me that it was as though she could walk right of the page and exist in today's world.

I think it is a definite love/hate book. I loved it and would recommend it for sure :-)

It's been a few years since I've read it as well - but I remember liking it quite a bit.

I haven't met anyone who has read let alone liked the book so its nice to know i am now the only one =)

Wally Lamb is one of my favorite authors and my love affair with his books began with this one. He has a uniquely singular ability to allow his female characters to speak with a feminine voice and perspective. It's not about having horrible things happen in your life and becoming a miserable human being. It's about being able to find peace when horrible things do happen in your life....the journey is not often a pretty one but the well won peace is worth the tough time. Its about the experiences in live being authentic not sugar coated.

That's the great things about books and free-will.....if you don't like the book you are reading just close the cover and move on.

I think I liked this book. Although some of the content may have been hard to bear, it was good. And Maureen what you said about books and free will, it speaks volumes.

Never read Wicked.

It's been quite a few years since I read this, and if I remember right, the main character had a lot of issues, but it was a good book.

I Know This Much is True was a wonderful book, She's Come Undone was an endless whinge. it wasn't who the character was that was off putting, it was the mundanity of the story.

I think I remember that much, the mundanity of the story. Good word, Sandyboy.

I would say I didn't dislike the book, but the main charachter was so pathetic at times it made me so mad. She made a lot of wrong choices that put her in compromising predicaments. She wasn't funny half the time. She was just hindering her healing process. I was genuinely sad when her mother died. I did feel bad for her that one time.

I read the book on the strength of Lamb'S I know This Much Is True. It had a good sense of time and place and voice at first, but as soon as the character reached adulthood and left the house and so much whinier it became precisely the kind of novel women seem to read and eat bonbons with because Oprah says it was a wonderful novel.

It's been a long time since reading this, but I remember liking this book as well. Now...I have to say that as a busy mom, a book is good to me if I can finish it w/o struggle. If I find I'm itching to go back to it and finish it because I'm interested enough in the characters/story then it's worthy of a "like" from me. I don't get much time to read many books w/o pictures or rhymes, so please excuse me if I don't review it like a college professor and dive into each character and how the author wrote it. I'm not that deep I guess.

I love this book-its on my favorites list. Was quite surpised so many didnt like it.

This is not one of my favorites. I think, for me, it was because I have lived with a mentally ill family member who did far worse things and made far worse decisions than Delores, so her story was just mundane and basically sat still. I believe had I not been exposed to mental illness so personally, this book would have had more of an effect on me (shock value, if you will) and perhaps I would have liked it more.

Because she goes through so much and the ending was pretty flat. I thought why did he put his character through all of this? Why did I put myself through that entire book? I was really hoping for some kind of redemption, something at the end of this book and it just wasn't there.

I read this book a few years ago and liked it but not as much as Wally Lamb's other book, I KNOW THIS MUCH IS TRUE. My sister read it and really disliked the main character for the same reasons a few readers mention here; she thought she was whiny and self-pitying and at the same time callous to other people's feelings. She had a very strong reaction to it which I think says something for a book-if it can provoke such a strong response even if it's a negative one.

To each his/her own! I loved this book, but liked I Know This Much Is True even more! I think Wally Lamb is an excellent writer.

I have read this book twice, I thought it was really good. I also liked Walley Lambs other book I Know this Much is True.

My mother recommended this book to me and at first I thought I wasn't going to like it but I loved it. Wally Lamb is a brilliant author and I love his other books just as much!

Real-life doesn't always have a happy ending. Some tastes may also be a little too conservative for the stylings of Wally Lamb. Sometimes mundane can be beautiful.

I actually liked this book. Read it few months ago and I really enjoyed it.

This book is one of my all time favorites from one of my favorite authors. Wally Lamb created a funny, scrappy and resilient character in Dolores Price. I laughed and cried--often on the same page.