She's Come Undone

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I bought the unabridged audio version, so I didn't miss a thing from the print version, which we were reading as a book club. It was a long book, so being pressed for time, I needed to be able to be able to get through it while doing things that I wouldn't be able to do while "reading" and vice versa. A week after finishing this book, I still have conflicting opinions. It’s hard to synthesize them into a coherent review, so I’m just going to summarize what I liked and disliked. Is Dolores the way a man saw women in crisis in the sixties? I don't want to be offensive, but if he saw white women like this then what a sad commentary. If he wrote this as all inclusive of women, in general, then he was dead wrong in his guesstimation. Different strokes for different folks. Much of the attention of She's Come Undone has focused on a male writer's ability (or inability) to write authentically in the voice of a female character. What other make fiction writers of the present and/or the past have experimented with women's "voices?" What female writers have written in the voice of males? Is it appropriate for fiction writers to give themselves such "gender-bending" assignments? Is it politically correct? Is it a more socially acceptable task for writers of one gender than for the other? I don't feel that this is a book that I can criticize this book as much as I should. She's Come Undone is for anyone struggling in their life. In a way it will help you realize that you're not alone, other people have been through shit too, and you can overcome it and be stronger in the end. And even if you haven't been through anything difficult (which I find hard to believe) you should still read this book, because it's still a really good book.

The Guess Who: The Concert (recorded in Winnipeg, June 30, 2000), Directed by Rico Labbe, Saifer Entertainment, 2000Even a person who should understand her pain and what she faces as an obese person, really turns out to be a user, and that part was very hard to read. I sat on the bed, massaging his temples, pretending that just the right rubbing might draw out the disease. In the mirror I watched us both--Mr. Pucci, frail and wasted, a talking dead man. And myself with the surgical mask over my mouth, to protect him from me. Death, in many forms, frequently occurs in the novel. What is the impact of death on Dolores and is she ever able to move beyond the initial tragedy of her baby brother's death? Dolores is plagued with heartache, hurt and uncertainty. As a teenager it seems that every person she allows close to her hurts her. She withdraws herself inward and finds comfort in the television and food, losing all interest in the outside world. By doing so she creates more problems for herself, mentally and physically. Four men who meet as college roommates move to New York and spend the next three decades gaining renown in their professions—as an architect, painter, actor and lawyer—and struggling with demons in their intertwined personal lives.

A violent surfacing of adolescence (which has little in common with Tarkington's earlier, broadly comic, Seventeen) has a compulsive impact. After reading (listening to) this story (forcibly Suggested by a friend) I have come to realize that I am indeed Dolores Price - born a few years later - but also Molested and traumatized on several levels. I am currently in my FAT Phase - and Im motivated - and I found as I was Cheering for Delores to allow herself happiness - I realized I TOO was denying myself happiness. As a youth he's a loving and devoted Christian, when Dolores meets him he's a womanizing playboy but becomes an attentive thoughtful, boyfriend, then he turns into a critical and selfish spouse, then a cheat, then a virtual pedophile. Discuss the significance of water in the novel - as a symbol of both Dolores' breaking points and eventual recovery. Much of the attention of She's Come Undone has focused on a male writer's ability (or inability) to write authentically in the voice of a female character. What other male fiction writers of the present and/or the past have experimented with women's "voices'? What female writers have written in the voice of males? Is it appropriate for fiction writers to give themselves such "gender-bending" assignments? Is it politically correct? Is it a more socially acceptable task for writers of one gender than for the other?

Wally Lamb

Dante Davis: Kippy's long-distance boyfriend, Dolores' college infatuation, and eventual first husband.