She's Come Undone, the book

It has taken me 11 years to finally get around to reading (actually listening to the audiotape) of Wally Lamb's, She's Come Undone, an Oprah pick.

The story is about Dolores Price from the age of 4 to 40 and traces her developmental history from a broken home when her father walks on her mother who then has a "nervous breakdown" to her rape at age 13 by a male border in her grandmother's house where she resides, to her ballooning weight to 250 lbs., to her disastrous trip to college where she attempts suicide precipitating 4 years of inpatient and 3 years of outpatient psychiatric treatment, to a very unhappy marriage and an abortion, to, finally, a bit of cliched happiness, and thankfully the end of a melodramatic novel that only an Oprah could love.

I could say that I enjoyed this book, but it is too much like the stories that I hear everyday as a psychotherapist which remind me of the Hobbsien notion that life is solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.

You have to admire Dolores' perseverance because in spite of life's difficulties she does seem to transcend them and thrive. I don't think the psychiatric treatment she receives is very appropriate or helpful and by today's standards certainly would not be considered adequate.

She's Come Undone is a beach read, and perhaps mildly interesting.

If you want my four tape audiobook let me know.