She's Come Undone by Wally Lamb Book Review

She's Come Undone by Wally Lamb 

(499 pages) (1992) 

Genres : Mental illness, Contemporary, Fiction 

Rating 4/5 

Wally Lamb is one of my all time favorites. I absolutely loved his second book 'I know This Much Is True' about twin brothers, one of whom is schizophrenic - It is invariably my all time favorite book in this genre. 'She's  Come Undone' is his first novel and I thought it showed some amateurish handling of the subject matter. I am not saying I haven't enjoyed it or it is bad but while the title suggested a person - a woman/girl most likely - succumbing to the hold of a mental illness, the story is not exactly that. 

Dolores Price is well crafted and moulded - Lamb has breathed life and soul into her character. This is the story of how mishaps,abuse and loss drives a young impressionable girl into the clutches of despair/depression and how she navigates back to a sure footed normal life. She becomes a slave to her culinary urges and grows incredibly obese after her father abandons them, she gets raped and mother dies in an enigmatic accident. She feels ostracized and invisible most of her adult life to her classmates and flunks out of college. Unable to deal with loneliness and depression, she makes an unsuccessful attempt at suicide. She gets into therapy, spends years in a mental institution and comes out with what the author suggests as unfinished business with the doctor. What felt unbelievable/ strange to me is how easily she was able to shake off her eating habits/cravings  and depressive tendencies once she gets out of the rehab. She felt like a different person from who she was as a teenager /young adult. She definitely still 

 had issues coping with loss,guilt and betrayal .. but nothing that would tumble her down the alley of depression a second time. She has come out stronger and invincible with a voice and judgement of her own. This alteration felt like a bit of betrayal to the characterization of Dolores Price - showing her as someone/something different from her usual self - although I admired her strength and gumption in the second part of her life!