She's Come Undone by Wally Lamb ✔✔✔✔

I read this probably about 20 years ago, and have read every novel since written by Wally Lamb.  I believe it qwas a very early "Oprah book" and was loaned to me by Janie.  I was recommending books to the girl who does my nails - she's in her mid-twenties, and; I mentioned Lamb's name to her at that time. Then when we visited Bracebridge, I saw it on Rynnetta's "give-away shelf", so I brought it home for her.  In the meantime, I re-read it - in four days, all 465 pages!  Rainy days helped this for sure,but it is a very easy read and so good!

Dolores  is thirteen when we meet her, her childhood behind her because of a particularly harmful experience she had.  She's beached like a whale in front of her TV, nourished only by junk food and an anxious mother, whose life has not been terribly functional, either. Now at age 27 and 257 pounds, she's ready to give herself another chance.

I guess what I appreciated the most is that the author - a man - was able to so accurately write about a young girl's growing up.  And the book is loaded with detail, although very clearly written - you never have to turn back pages to figure out who someone is.  There's neighbours in the apartment upstairs, a grandmother who agonizes over her daughter and her grand-daughter, a guidance counsellor who ends up a close friend, a tattoo artist who also ends up a mentor and advisor, spoiled girls at college, bratty girls at work, a psychologist who spends seven years re-working Dolores' childhood - the characters are as colourful as Dolores herself, and few of them are forgettable.

This is a funny, painful, wise, heart-rending story, and I saw so many of young girls I taught at school in Dolores.  A very good book for everyone to read, and I'm glad I re-read it.