"Mine is a story of craving; an unreliable account of lusts and troubles that began, somehow, in 1956 on the day our free television was delivered." So begins the story of Dolores Price, the unconventional heroine of Wally Lamb's She's Come Undone. Dolores is a class-A emotional basket case, and why shouldn't she be? She's suffered almost every abuse and familial travesty that exists: her father is a violent, philandering liar; her mother has the mental and emotional consistency of Jell-O; and the men in her life are among the most loathsome creatures ever to go by the name of man. But Dolores is no quitter; she battles her woes with a sense of self-indulgence and gluttony rivalled only by Henry VIII. Hers is a dysfunctional Wonder Years, where growing up in the golden era was anything but ideal. While most kids her age were dealing with the monumental importance of the latest Beatles single and how college turned an older sibling into a long-haired hippie, Dolores was grappling with such issues as divorce, rape and mental illness. Whether you're disgusted by her antics or moved by her pathetic ploys, you'll be drawn into Dolores's warped, hilarious, Mallomar-munching world.

2008-07-09 !

I read two or three books a week, every week. And although i often think i'm going to save 'this book' to read again, 'She's Come Undone' is the only one that I have pulled off the shelf twice (in fact three times!) This is my favourite book ever, and not because it's easy reading, or takes me to a different world. This book is real, too real, in fact so real that i have given it to friends who phone me crying half way through because they think it was written for them; how is Wally Lamb a bloke???? If you have ever felt bad cos you are too fat, or cos you are not included in the beautiful/cool gangs, then this book is for you. Wally Lamb, in this and his subsequent book, is a magnificent wordsmith and truly understands people. This book truly changed my life, and saved me a small fortune in therapy.