Originally released in 1992, Wally Lamb’s debut novel, She’s Come Undone, came to wider public attention in 1998 when Oprah picked it for her book club. I remember having seen this book pretty much everywhere for years before I finally picked it up. 

She’s Come Undone is essentially the bildungsroman of Dolores Price, a morbidly obese young woman who survives, among other events, the abandonment of her father, the shunning by her classmates, sexual abuse and a ill-fated marriage, while maintaining a humorous while sardonic outlook on life. Dolores is one of the best narrators I’ve come across, and this book is so compulsively readable, I read it in 2 days. If ever I didn’t want a book to end, it was this one… it is laugh-out-loud funny, depressing at times, but always honest. 

This is the first of Wally Lamb’s four novels (released so far, and I hope he releases many more) but really showcases his ability as a writer to create flawed but completely believable characters, and to create quite dense but fast-moving plots. I may write a separate post on Wally later, but if you liked She’s Come Undone, check out 1998’s I Know This Much Is True and 2008’s The Hour I First Believed.