book review- Shes Come Undone

Throughout the novel, Dolores is forced to suffer because of her inability comprehend and move on from the horrific events that have befallen her. At the age of thirteen, Dolores is raped but a family friend. Jack Speight was the charismatic radio show host who lived with his wife in the apartment above Dolores’s grandmother. With his playful jests and charming demeanor, he wins the affection of the three women immediately. However, as frustration at work mounts, Jacks behavior towards Dolores becomes increasingly inappropriate. On a drive into the woods one evening, he commits the brutal act. The enormity and permanence is not beyond Dolores’s thirteen-year-old comprehension. As she stares at her reflection, she states “What had happened was going to be always on me, in me, as permanent as one of Roberta’s tattoos…I re

Lamb wrote this novel in a frank and simplistic style. Written from Dolores’s perspective, the story is witty and unrefined, often comical, but consistently captivating. Creating the sense that the story is being told by Dolores as a firsthand account, the author has forged a bond between the reader and the main character. Giving the reader the sense that they’re being confided in by a friend, Lamb writes “I’ll admit this too: part of the reason I cooperated with Dr. Shaw at first was because I had a crush on him”. Lamb’s writing gives the readers the sense that Dolores’s life experiences are their own. Vividly, Lamb describes each sense, each emotion, each thought, so that they become the readers own. Euphemisms and embellishments are not used; rather, the truths of human nature are stated plainly. Symbolism is used frequently throughout the novel, applying physical representations to various concepts. The TV comes to represent the void in Dolores’s life, the emptiness and monotony of her isolation. “…That black-and-white Emerson television was a gift free and clear of strings that would begin my families unraveling”, Dolores states early on in the novel. Water also develops into a symbol of rebirth. Before her parents divorce, Dolores’s father had installed a pool in the backyard. Shortly after swimming in it together, the marriage ends and a new life begins for Dolores and her mother. Following her encounter with the whale in Cape Code, Dolores comes out of the ocean and is taken to a mental institution. Dr. Shaw’s “reparenting” process involved time in a pool during the stages of development inside the womb as well. Over eating becomes a symbol of Dolores’s spiritual emptiness. As a pattern of her depression, Dolores binges

Some topics in this essay:
Jack Speight, Dr Shaw, Vividly Lamb, Cap Code, Dr Shaw’s, Written Dolores’s, Dolores Price, Eventually Dante, Esther Holland’s, College Price’s, dr shaw, cape code, dolores’s life, throughout novel, dolores comes, dolores’s grandmother,