Location via proxy:   [ UP ]  
[Report a bug]   [Manage cookies]                
Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    From $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    She's Come Undone
    She's Come Undone
    She's Come Undone
    Audiobook (abridged)5 hours

    She's Come Undone

    Written by Wally Lamb

    Narrated by Kathy Najimy

    4/5

    ()

    Switch to ebook

    About this audiobook

    In this New York Times bestselling extraordinary coming-of-age odyssey, Wally Lamb invites us to hitch a wild ride on a journey of love, pain, and renewal with the most heartbreakingly comical heroine to come along in years.

    "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...."

    Meet Dolores Price. She's thirteen, wise-mouthed but wounded, having bid her childhood goodbye. Beached like a whale in front of her bedroom TV, she spends the next few years nourishing herself with the Mallomars, potato chips, and Pepsi her anxious mother supplies. When she finally rolls into young womanhood at 257 pounds, Dolores is no stronger and life is no kinder. But this time she's determined to rise to the occasion and give herself one more chance before really going belly up.

    In this extraordinary coming-of-age odyssey, Wally Lamb invites us to hitch a wild ride on a journey of love, pain, and renewal with the most heartbreakingly comical heroine to come along in years. At once a fragile girl and a hard-edged cynic, so tough to love yet so inimitably lovable, Dolores is as poignantly real as our own imperfections. She's Come Undone includes a promise: you will never forget Dolores Price.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSimon & Schuster Audio
    Release dateMar 1, 1997
    ISBN9780743519410
    Author

    Wally Lamb

    Wally Lamb is the author of five New York Times bestselling novels: She’s Come Undone, I Know This Much Is True, The Hour I First Believed, Wishin’ and Hopin’, and We Are Water. His first two works of fiction, She’s Come Undone and I Know This Much Is True, were both #1 New York Times bestsellers and selections of Oprah’s Book Club. Lamb edited Couldn’t Keep It to Myself, I’ll Fly Away, and You Don’t Know Me, three volumes of essays from students in his writing workshop at York Correctional Institution, a women’s prison in Connecticut, where he has been a volunteer facilitator for two decades. He lives in Connecticut and New York.

    More audiobooks from Wally Lamb

    Related to She's Come Undone

    Related audiobooks

    Coming of Age Fiction For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • UNLIMITED

      'Wellness' Is A Perfect Novel For Our Age, Its Profound Sadness Tempered With Humor

      Sep 20, 2023

      Nathan Hill's stunning new novel about the stories we tell about our lives and our loves, and how we sustain relationships throughout time, is both funny and heartbreaking, sometimes on the same page.

      3 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      How To Install Your First Widget

      Feb 9, 2021

      > As you would expect with Apple, the company has made installing widgets in iOS 14 a piece of cake. Your device will come with Apple apps that have their own widgets ready to go, although you might have to launch third-party apps at least once befor

      1 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      The 10 Best Novels

      Dec 19, 2016

      The 10 Best Novels
      3 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      'The Heart's Invisible Furies' Is the Funny, Touching Story of an Irish Everyman

      Sep 1, 2017

      Boyne's new novel follows its protagonist throughout the decades, from birth in 1945 to age 70, and the story encompasses a great deal of history.

      3 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      January Fiction

      Dec 14, 2021

      The Maid by Nita Prose HarperCollins, £14.99 Molly Gray, the narrator of Nita Prose’s startlingly good debut novel, is a young woman who knows her place—and who rather likes it. For “approximately four years, 13 weeks, and five days” she’s been worki

      2 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Ghost Writer

      Jun 5, 2022

      Ghost Writer
      1 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      The Humanity of Being Freakish: The Millions Interviews Kevin Wilson

      Nov 15, 2019

      The goal is that my sons, Griff and Patch, eventually don’t need me anymore. But I can’t reconcile that yet. So, again, I write about that anxiety. The post The Humanity of Being Freakish: The Millions Interviews Kevin Wilson appeared first on The Mi

      7 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      What’s In A Name?

      Dec 22, 2021

      What’s In A Name?
      9 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      When I Say Goodbye

      May 31, 2018

      When I Say Goodbye
      16 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Ribs, Muscle, Bone

      Jan 7, 2020

      Ribs, Muscle, Bone
      10 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Certification of Righteousness

      Sep 14, 2020

      Certification of Righteousness
      14 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Guests

      Jun 15, 2019

      The month after our mother died, our father began bringing women home. It felt like a behind-her-back kind of operation. “I’m going to have a guest over tonight,” is what he would say. David and I stayed out in the living room, turned up cartoons, bu

      11 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      A Southern Christmas

      Nov 1, 2023

      A Southern Christmas
      7 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      My Twin

      Jul 12, 2024

      My Twin
      28 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for She's Come Undone

    4/5

    4,094 ratings136 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 1/5
      This audiobook is not complete. We miss a lot of paragraphs, the book is incomplete.
    • 2/5
      There is an audio gap in the last five minutes—not a good way to end a book!!
    • 5/5
      Good one! I’ve had the printed version on my bookshelf for years, unread. The narrator is great! Five stars.
    • 5/5
      Being the same age of the main character, I could easily relate to her.
      It is a great story.
    • 5/5
      While reading Wally Lamb's She's Come Undone back in the summer of 2003, there were two things that I just couldn't stop thinking about: The Guess Who's classic song, and the Lee Philips-directed film, The Girl Most Likely To (1973).

      A remarkable novel, She's Come Undone is a coming-of-age, heartstrings-tugger about a girl named Delores who grapples with childhood obesity, and the maltreatment she endures from others?including her wayward mother?as the result of it.

      Delores undergoes quite a bit in her life. And I personally loved and felt a great deal of empathy towards her, considering that my own childhood included battling the bulge.
      They all?even her fellow college coeds?mistreat the fat girl, Delores, but all of that begins to change after a distraught and suicidal Delores one day finds herself washed ashore and face-to-face with a beached whale ...

      She's Come Undone is one of the greatest books that I've ever read. And it's no surprise that Ms. Oprah selected it as a must-read for her book club. Five stars.
    • 1/5
      didn't finish it. Protagonist was loathsome.
    • 5/5
      Amazing book and very cathartic for anyone that has suffered through trauma or feeling outside the rest of the world.
    • 5/5
      For some reason this has always been on my list of books to read and now I have read it. I am not disappointed. It was a beautiful story.
    • 5/5
      First Oprah book I read. I related to it so well that I wrote to Oprah's club to be included and was a finalist and they called me to possibly come to the show. I was so excited but I didn't get on in the final cut. However, I found Wally Lamb's book so engaging and related to it so much that I almost felt it was about me in many instances. I hated for it to end!
    • 4/5
      I read the book, I liked the book but I cannot even begin to tell you how annoying and depressing the character of Delores was throughout the book.I mean I just wanted to really, you know, slap the eyebrows off her face. Yes she went through some trying times but the negativity was overwhelming, just too much but really, what more can you expect but gosh...SLAP! ok much better.Wally Lamb is wonderful and deserves to be read. But Delores, she needs to come undone with a big 'ole snap out of it slap.
    • 3/5
      This was not a great book, but it was a good book. Alot of it was very sad but I found it realistic. It did kinda go on and on though.
    • 3/5
      Well, I read this back when it was very popular, and I don't remember liking it very much. This always happens to me--those books that seem so meaningful to other readers fall flat for me. But I do remember thinking that the protagonist was just not a very believable person to me. It's a book that supposed to be for women but didn't seem to "get" women--at least, that's how I remember it.
    • 5/5
      I'm on my second reading of this book. It's been about 4 years since I last read it, and I'm enjoying it again. Wally Lamb hooked me with the first sentence, and I'm finding it hard to put this book down, once again. This book is a keeper on my book shelf. I'm sure this won't be the last time I read it. I keep finding things I missed the first time around, and I'm sure I will do the same for each additional reads.
    • 2/5
      Only because students selected this for our last book club title have I trudged all the way through this. I just really hate the story. There is NO hope, NO humor . . . I'm having a hard time with this. I can't understand how it's earned the average rating it has. Please tell me what I'm missing!!
    • 1/5
      I actually never finished it. I didn't like the girl's rotten attitude that came from nowhere and I think I've read enough books about rape for a while. Maybe I'll visit it again someday.
    • 5/5
      I liked this book. A lot of the scenarios are a little over the top, but then again, I like that sort of thing which is why I prefer fiction books over non-fiction. I did like Lamb's other novel better though-- I Know This Much is True.
    • 2/5
      The beginning was fine, but the second half or so got rough...I even had to skip a few pages because I couldn't handle reading the scene.
      It's really depressing, how everything gets worse and worse for this protagonist.
      It's not easy reading, not lighthearted by any means.
    • 4/5
      A coming of age story about Dolores Price, a woman for whom life just did not go her way. Much was her own doing and her thought process. Somehow, she keeps moving on in this story to what she feels is the right way, for her.
    • 4/5
      I fell in love with Dolores within the first couple of chapters. I don't think she had "come undone" as much as I think she was already broken, and being raised in an unstable home didn't help any with putting the broken bits back together, The first half of this book was spectacular, but once again as in Wally Lamb's other book "I know This Much Is True" I hated the therapist, the therapy and the time Dolores spent in it. My interest really waned in that 3 quarters or so of the book and I was as happy as Dolores herself to be done with it. The last quarter of the book thankfully had nothing to do with the psychiatrist and pretty much went back to being a spectacular story.
    • 4/5
      The ultimate girly book that has really stayed with me over the years. I loved her voice --- and still so amazed that this was written by a man.
    • 4/5
      Hard to believe Wally isn't really a woman. An honest story about the weight of lies.
    • 5/5
      I was tricked into reading this. Like the true book snob I am, I have a rule that I will not read any Oprah books. A friend of mine, knowing the rule, suckered me into reading this one without telling me that it was an Oprah book. I found out mid-way through. I think that's why I really liked the book but tired of it towards the end. I'm such a snob. This is the life of Delores Price and better you should read about her life than meet her. Much of it is funny and lot of it tragic and twisted but it works.
    • 4/5
      Clever, witty, dramatic--sort of a dramedy. Good female POV from a male writer. Enjoyed it.
    • 3/5
      At times I cared about Dolores and didn't want to stop reading. However, when the life-altering events happened (and there were many of them), I found the writing awkward and I disconnected from the novel. I was hoping for a great ending, but was disappointed. The novel was just okay - not great, but not awful.
    • 5/5
      I liked this book. A lot of the scenarios are a little over the top, but then again, I like that sort of thing which is why I prefer fiction books over non-fiction. I did like Lamb's other novel better though-- I Know This Much is True.
    • 3/5
      I didn't love it. At times, I hated Dolores. At times, I was Dolores. This is definitely one of those books I wish goodreads did half stars for because I'm torn between a 3 or 4 star rating. There were some beautiful moments though and those are the parts that stand out and make me lean closer to a 4. I'll probably change my rating once I sit down to review.
    • 3/5
      I have strong feelings about this book I just don't know what they are. I'm honestly kind of speechless. I think it was great? Hell, what happened? What did I read? How do you describe such a complex and... uncomplicated book? It's a coming of age story, an awakening, an odyssey of emotional and mental health. It's all over the place. It all centers around Dolores Price, a young girl who isn't the most emotionally stable. She starts off as a fragile little thing and balloons up into a fat, depressed cynic, and then spends the rest of her life roller coasting around until she finds some sort of balance. It's a discussion of women's rights, religion, mental health, family dynamics, romantic relationships, and more. She is a complex, intriguing heroine/villain/comedic actress. Honestly I can't describe this book and do it justice. It takes a little to get into, but one you do, buckle up.
    • 2/5
      “If you want your prayers answered, get up off your knees and do something about them.”

      The central character of this novel is Dolores Price, a 40-year-old woman who recounts her life from an innocent 4 year old in 1956 Connecticut through her painful progress into adulthood to middle age.

      Dolores, is the sole surviving child of a totally dysfunctional marriage, a younger brother having been strangled by the umbilical cord during birth. Her mother, Bernice, never quite recovers from this loss whilst Dolores's father, Tony, is an occasionally abusive husband and womaniser.

      As Dolores's childhood progresses, her parents' marriage collapses, her mother has a mental breakdown leading to her being confined to a state hospital, and she is forced move to live with her maternal grandmother, Thelma Holland. Mrs. Holland is a dutiful but generally ineffective guardian who outwardly is unable to offer much comfort to both her daughter and slowly disintegrating granddaughter. When 13 years old Dolores is raped by one of her grandmother's upstairs tenants, then her mother Bernice, is later killed in a freak accident Dolores knows that she can't turn to her grandmother for solace, instead she retreats into binge eating hiding behind a mountain of fat, both of which temporarily protect her from further physical assault.

      To try to fulfil her dead mother's final wishes Dolores enrols at college. There she becomes the room-mate of Katherine (Kippy) Strednicki, who is only really interested in more superficial concerns. However, Kippy has an apparently saintly boyfriend back home who has rejected her sexual overtures believing that sex before marriage is sinful. When Kippy's boyfriend,Dante Davis, sends Kippy nude photos of himself Dolores intercepts them and keeps them for herself. Dante becomes her obsession.

      After a failed year at college and following a similarly failed suicide attempt, Dolores spends seven years in a private mental hospital where she recovers both her mental and physical equilibrium. On departure she sets out to find and win Dante. She succeeds in this widely fantastic plan, only to suffer further humiliation at his hands. Throughout everything, Dolores clings to a frail notion of family by writing to her grandmother, lying about her own miserable life whilst expressing affection that are never satisfactorily reciprocated.

      Throughout the novel I found rooting for Dolores in the hope that she would overcome all her previous adversity and find peace and happiness. In a way she does. In the latter stages of the book the author rather strays into some of the hot social and political topics of the day,namely abortion and infertility, AIDS, Parkinson's and the plight of the whales which is a bit of a shame in what otherwise is an intensely introspective novel. The book's suspense depends more on emotions rather than events, and its hard not sympathize with Dolores. This is a story of survival.

      Considering that this is Lamb's first novel he writes convincingly in the voice of a female, tracing her life from 4 to 40 (or at least in the opinion of this male reader anyway) and despite the tragic events at times made me smile. Yet somehow it failed to really hit the mark (the dalliance with the the Political issues of the day certainly didn't help) culminating in a relatively low mark. A good effort but no banana.
    • 4/5
      Delores' character is lovable and annoying at times. She's just like a real human, isn't she? :P

      But anyways, really, there were some parts of the book where I'm just like "REALLY????" flabbergasted, and other times I was just like "Yes girl, take the higher road!" and just wanted to be like her in instances. Overall, it's a wonderful book that really gets you thinking about YOU at times because you reflect so much after.
    • 5/5
      Meet Dolores, a smart mouthed, bitter 13 year-old girl who deals with situations by eating. By the time she’s ready to go off to college, she’s obese, and she learns just how cruel the world can be. She hits rock bottom, but that allows her to find herself and go after what she wants.