She's Come Undone

Last updated
She's Come Undone
WallyLamb ShesComeUndone.jpg
Cover to the first edition
Author Wally Lamb
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
GenreComedy, Drama
Publisher Simon & Schuster
Publication date
24 August 1992
Media typePrint (hardback & paperback)
Pages368 pp (hardback edition) & 465 pp (paperback edition)
ISBN 0-671-71568-2
OCLC 29468346

She's Come Undone is the 1992 debut novel by Wally Lamb. The novel was selected as the fourth book for Oprah's Book Club in December 1996. [1] Lamb's novel was named a finalist for the 1992 Los Angeles Book Awards' Art Seidenbaum Prize for first fiction. [2] She's Come Undone has been translated into eighteen languages.

Contents

Plot summary

Dolores Price is heartbroken when her father leaves her mother, Bernice, and their suburban home for another woman. Dolores and her mother must subsequently move into her overbearing grandmother's house in Easterly, Rhode Island. Here she attends a Catholic junior high school and finds herself lonely and unable to fit into the established social hierarchy. After being raped by a neighbor who preys on her vulnerable state, Dolores turns to food and television for comfort.

Following the accidental death of her mother, Dolores decides to attend the academically underwhelming Merton College in Pennsylvania. There Dolores is ridiculed for her weight and cultivates a secret obsession with her roommate's long-distance boyfriend, Dante, who sends love letters and nude photos in the mail. After an ill-conceived one-night stand with Dottie, the university's lesbian custodian, she takes a long cab ride to Cape Cod, where she witnesses a beached whale dying. She feels kinship with the animal and wades into the water to drown herself.

After her suicide attempt, Dolores is institutionalized for seven years in Newport, Rhode Island at Gracewood. Here she begins to work through her issues with the help of her therapist. She loses over 100 pounds, but becomes frustrated with the slow-moving therapy. She decides to move to Vermont upon release from the institution, having located Dante, the former object of her infatuation, there.

Dolores gets a job at a local grocery store and moves into an apartment across the hallway from Dante. He is working as a high school English teacher, but is frustrated with the stagnation in his life after having given up his childhood dream of becoming a priest. The two begin a relationship, and eventually marry. However, Dante continues to dominate Dolores and has affairs with his female students. When Dolores becomes pregnant (something she dearly wanted), Dante pressures her into getting an abortion. After the loss of her baby, Dolores becomes resentful of the control Dante exerts over her life. After her grandmother, Thelma, dies, she admits to Dante that she orchestrated their entire relationship after becoming infatuated with him through his photos. They divorce and Dolores leaves. She moves into her late grandmother's house, which she has inherited.

At her grandmother's funeral, Dolores is able to reconnect with several friends from her past, who form a surrogate family for her in Easterly. They encourage her to pursue her dreams, and she enrolls in some college courses while working. Here she meets Thayer, a single father, who is immediately smitten with her despite her troubled past. Initially Dolores rebuffs his advances, but is charmed when he sends his teenage son to recite a rap about how much he likes her. They begin a tentative romance, predicated on Dolores's desire to have a child. Dolores realizes that for the first time, she has a partner in her life whom she can trust and who will treat her as an equal. Thayer supports her as she receives IVF treatment, but they do not have enough money for a second attempt after the first one fails.

By now, Dolores is in her late 30s and is depressed by the idea that she will never be a mother. Thayer, now her husband, takes her on a whale watching vacation to help her feel better. While on the boat, Dolores muses about her past and future. Dolores decides that her life, as it is now, is wonderful and is enough. The novel ends with her being the only one to see a whale breach the ocean, symbolizing her newfound peace.

Characters

Minor characters

Awards and nominations

Related Research Articles

<i>Dolores Claiborne</i> 1992 novel by Stephen King

Dolores Claiborne is a 1992 psychological thriller novel by Stephen King. The novel is narrated by the title character. Atypically for a King novel, it has no chapters, double-spacing between paragraphs, or other section breaks; thus, the text is a single continuous narrative, which reads like the transcription of a spoken monologue. It was the best-selling novel of 1992 in the United States. The story introduced the fictional community of Little Tall Island, which Stephen King later used as the setting for the original TV mini-series Storm of the Century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Storrs, Connecticut</span> Census-designated place in Connecticut, United States

Storrs is a village and census-designated place (CDP) in the town of Mansfield in eastern Tolland County, Connecticut, United States. The village is part of the Capitol Planning Region. The population was 15,979 at the 2020 census. It is dominated economically and demographically by the main campus of the University of Connecticut and the associated Connecticut Repertory Theatre.

<i>White Oleander</i> Book by Janet Fitch

White Oleander is a 1999 novel by American author Janet Fitch. In the fashion of a picaresque novel, it deals with themes of motherhood, telling the story of a girl named Astrid who is separated from her mother, Ingrid, and placed in a series of foster homes. It was chosen for Oprah's Book Club in May 1999, after which it became a national bestseller and adapted into a 2002 film.

<i>Ellen Foster</i> 1987 novel by Kaye Gibbons

Ellen Foster is a 1987 novel by American novelist Kaye Gibbons. It was a selection of Oprah's Book Club in October 1997.

<i>Housekeeping</i> (novel) 1980 novel by Marilynne Robinson

Housekeeping is a 1980 novel by Marilynne Robinson. The novel was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and awarded the PEN/Hemingway Award for best first novel.

<i>The Women of Brewster Place</i> (novel) 1982 novel by Gloria Naylor

The Women of Brewster Place (1982) is the debut novel of American author Gloria Naylor. It won the National Book Award in category First Novel. It was adapted as the 1989 miniseries The Women of Brewster Place and the 1990 television show Brewster Place by Oprah Winfrey's Harpo Productions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wally Lamb</span> American novelist (born 1950)

Wally Lamb is an American author known as the writer of the novels She's Come Undone and I Know This Much Is True, both of which were selected for Oprah's Book Club. He was the director of the Writing Center at Norwich Free Academy in Norwich from 1989 to 1998 and has taught Creative Writing in the English Department at the University of Connecticut.

<i>I Know This Much Is True</i> Book by Wally Lamb

I Know This Much Is True is the second novel by Wally Lamb, published in 1998. It was featured in Oprah's Book Club for June 1998.

<i>While I Was Gone</i> 1999 novel by Sue Miller

While I Was Gone is a 1999 novel by Sue Miller. It was chosen as an Oprah's Book Club selection in May 2000.

<i>Dolores Claiborne</i> (film) 1995 film by Taylor Hackford

Dolores Claiborne is a 1995 American psychological thriller drama film directed by Taylor Hackford and starring Kathy Bates, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Christopher Plummer, and David Strathairn. The screenplay by Tony Gilroy is based on the 1992 novel of the same name by Stephen King. The plot focuses on the strained relationship between a mother and her daughter, largely told through flashbacks, after her daughter arrives to her remote hometown on a Maine island where her mother has been accused of murdering the elderly woman for whom she had long been a care-provider and companion.

<i>Youth in Revolt</i> (film) 2009 film by Miguel Arteta

Youth in Revolt is a 2009 American romantic comedy-drama film directed by Miguel Arteta and written by Gustin Nash. Based on C.D. Payne's epistolary novel of the same name, the film stars Michael Cera and Portia Doubleday, with Justin Long, Ray Liotta, and Steve Buscemi in supporting roles.

<i>The Tenth Circle</i> 2006 novel by Jodi Picoult

The Tenth Circle (2006) is the thirteenth novel by the American author Jodi Picoult. The novel deals with date rape, and father/daughter relationships. The novel heavily references Dante Alighieri's Inferno.

<i>The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2</i> 2008 film directed by Sanaa Hamri

The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2 is a 2008 American comedy-drama film and a sequel to the 2005 film The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. The original cast return to star in the film. It was directed by Sanaa Hamri and written by Elizabeth Chandler, who wrote the previous film. The film is based upon the fourth novel in the book series: Forever in Blue (2007), but incorporates scenes and storylines from The Second Summer of the Sisterhood (2003) and Girls in Pants (2004).

<i>Primrose Path</i> (1940 film) 1940 film by Gregory La Cava

Primrose Path is a 1940 film about a young woman determined not to follow the profession of her mother and grandmother: prostitution. It stars Ginger Rogers and Joel McCrea. The film was the novel February Hill by Victoria Lincoln.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Oprah Winfrey</span> American talk show host, actress, producer, and author (born 1954)

Oprah Gail Winfrey, also known mononymously as Oprah, is an American talk show host, television producer, actress, author, and media proprietor. She is best known for her talk show, The Oprah Winfrey Show, broadcast from Chicago, which ran in national syndication for 25 years, from 1986 to 2011. Dubbed the "Queen of All Media", she was the richest African-American of the 20th century and was once the world's only black billionaire. By 2007, she was often ranked as the most influential woman in the world.

The Wildflowers is a series of short novels ghostwritten by Andrew Neiderman under the name V.C. Andrews. The Wildflowers is a series of stories about a group of four teen girls in court ordered group therapy. The first four novels serve as prequels to the therapy sessions while the last deals with what happened after. An omnibus edition was released in 2001.

<i>Push</i> (novel) 1996 novel by Sapphire

Push is the debut novel of American author Sapphire. Thirteen years after its release in 1996, the novel was made into the 2009 film Precious, which won numerous accolades, including two Academy Awards.

<i>True Confessions of a Heartless Girl</i> 2002 young adults novel by Martha Brooks

True Confessions of a Heartless Girl is a 2002 novel by Canadian author Martha Brooks, her seventh novel for young adults. It received the 2002 Governor General's Award for English-language children's literature.

<i>Amy and Isabelle</i> 1998 debut novel by the American author Elizabeth Strout

Amy and Isabelle, also stylized as Amy & Isabelle, is the 1998 debut novel by the American author Elizabeth Strout. The novel was first published in hardback on December 29, 1998 through Random House and is set in the fictional town of Shirley Falls, a location that Strout would revisit in her 2013 novel The Burgess Boys. Strout would also revisit the character of Isabelle in her 2019 short story cycle Olive, Again.

<i>I Know This Much Is True</i> (miniseries) American television miniseries

I Know This Much Is True is an American drama television miniseries directed and co-written by Derek Cianfrance, based on the 1998 novel of the same name by Wally Lamb. The series stars Mark Ruffalo in a dual role as twin brothers Dominick and Thomas Birdsey. It premiered on HBO on May 10, 2020, and concluded on June 14, 2020, consisting of six episodes. Ruffalo's performance was widely acclaimed and won him a Primetime Emmy Award, a Golden Globe Award, and a Screen Actors Guild Award.

References

  1. Editor, JOCELYN McCLURG; Courant Book. "'OPRAH EFFECT' STRIKES WALLY LAMB AGAIN". courant.com. Retrieved 2020-01-18.{{cite web}}: |last= has generic name (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  2. "She's Come Undone". Oprah.com. Retrieved 2020-01-18.
  3. 1 2 Lamb, Wally (1992). She's Come Undone. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster. ISBN   978-0671003753.
  4. "Books". Wally Lamb, #1 New York Times bestselling author. Retrieved 2020-03-12.