Has anyone read this book? It was one of the most amazing books written from a woman's POV- written by a man...

this book touched me and made me think! I would love to hear from anyone else who read it.

Yeah, I read it for the first time... 11 years ago. I remember because I read it while my parents were driving me halfway across the country to go to college Anyways, I loved it. I still love it, and give it a reread every year or so. You should check out "I Know This Much is True", his other book. And! I just found out he has another book coming out this fall. I'm excited!

Hi- I'm so glad there is someone else out there who has read this! Do the other 2 books involve the same character? I always felt like I could relate to her on so many levels. I am not thin and the things she experienced and shared with us felt like they were my experiences. I was so shocked that a man could write about those feelings and be so accurate. I know men feel similar things about themselves, but he seemed very in tune with the female POV.

His second book, "I Know This Much is True" is about a set of identical twins. One is schizophrenic, one isn't. It's about their family history, and their lives. LOL that doesn't tell you much, but I don't want to ruin anything for you if you do decide to go read it. The other one isn't out yet, so I'm not sure what it's about.

I have this book! I really liked it. Pretty deep stuff - I was really drawn in and cared about the character a lot.
(I've read it twice but it's been a long time and I don't remember her name! )

'I Know This Much Is True' was very good as well - though I found it to be depressing in a way that the other one wasn't.

I read this book for the first time this summer. I did like it although I didnt love it.

I hate how a chubby girl has to lose a bunch of weight to find herself and finally be comfortable with who she is. I hate how a girl only gets chubby because she over eats junk food and never leaves her house. Or how a chubby girl is always made fun of to the point of tears by her peers. I find it all to be condecending and stereotypical.

Why cant the chubby girl just be happy? You can find love and be overweight. You can be overweight and not eat junk food and actually leave your house. You can be chubby and be popular and not made fun of in high school. You can live your life and not be some depressive sad pathetic person AND not be thin all same time!!

So while I thought it was interesting enough, I'm also sick of seeing fat girls shown in this light.

Agreed- it seemed trite and typical, but being a chubby girl myself, I was amazed at his understanding. At the time- I was much younger- it felt he was describing me and how I felt about myself. Looking back, I was depressed and it was interesting to be on the outside looking in.

I read this years ago and thought it was good, but not a favorite of mine. I think I read it when it was picked for Oprah's book club.



I read this one as well and just hated it!

I agree that in films and other mediums where there is not a well developed character the whole "sad, lonely, chubby girl" thing is ridiculous and over done. I am chubby girl, but I am a hard core extrovert with a ton of friends and I have been my whole life. but due to things that happened when I was little and other unhappy events is my life, I began binge eating to make myself when I was 6 and I didn't even realize that was what I was doing until I was 22. I was a super happy bubbly girl in public and extremely depressed when I was alone. When I read it I too felt like he was talking about me. I felt like Wally Lamb captured what it's like when you choose food to self-medicate. Her weight loss resulted in her happiness because she was able to find other ways beside food to make herself happy and deal with her problems. I loved this book and list in as my all time favorite whenever asked. We see how I feel if/when Midnight Sun is finished.

Wally Lamb was one of the teachers at my high school, fun trivia

It took me a long time to read this book the first time. I found the abuse (self inflicted and external) painful. I recognised myself in parts of it, and my siblings in other sections. When I re read the book a few years later (and in a much healthier place) I enjoyed it much more.

Mr. Lamb did an amazing job writing from the female perspective. It was hard to fathom a male writer having that much insight.

This is one of my favorite books. I read it several years ago and when I recently reread it I got something totally different from it. To think that it was written from a mans perspective makes it interesting because he was dead on in describing the emotions. I know some people complain about the stereotype of the "chubby girl" but I think his purpose was more to show that this is what most of us do when we don't know how to deal with our emotions in a healthy way. Delores had lots of problems from the beginning and when no one could help her (friends, parents, grandma) she just decided to avoid the issues by eating. Her weight loss did not automatically make her happy she had to learn to be happy with herself after that. I like the way Wally Lamb writes, it seemed very personal and I felt like he described things in a way I could relate to them. I think it is a great book and I also liked I Know This Much Is True.

I agree! It is eerie how he was able to describe female emotions and fears so well. He must have sisters or something to be that dead on- or did really good research!

Oh Wally . . .
I loved this book. Someone gave it to me as a birthday present and I've read it five or six times over the years (one of those books you just keep going back to . . .*wink*) When I finished it the first time I was immeadiatly ready to write the author a letter to tell them just how deeply their book affected me - and the shock of seeing a man's face staring back at me from the back cover was one that took me a while to get over. I don't quite know how he managed to put himself into the head of a teenage girl so accurately, but it kind of scared me . . .

I never read into anything surrounding the 'stereotypical fat-girl idea' that's been discussed - reading it as a teenager I can say that it positively affected the way I viewed other people and the issues that everyone deals with under the outward surface of their lives. I felt the issue surrounded more with one's personal struggle to find what it is that makes them happy, against the odds of life, parents, home, school and society etc.

His second book - I Know This Much is True - was even harder to read, but Wally depictions of harrowed families and relationships is spot on, even if does choose the 'outcasts' of society to focus on. And the people who saw She's Come Undone as a stereotypical fat-girl story would only see this as the stereotypical crazy-twin-brother story.

Frankly - even though the characters in his book are sad and strange and maybe not who we want to think about, much less read about - we cannot for a second deny that there are real people like them in our world. Rather than write an escape from reality - he's offering a slice of it.