Book Review: "She's Come Undone" Wally Lamb

This book was the first book that I received through the website ReadItSwapIt. I swapped a copy of "A Child in Time" for it. I wasn' that interested in it, but I was just so pleased that someone wanted to swap something with me that I didn't like to say no. The book arrived and the picture of a lady's dress on the cover put me off, so it remained on my shelf until this week.

I have started frequenting the forums of ReadItSwapIt and there was a thread on there about reading your earliest unread swap. I posted that mine was "She's Come Undone" by Wally Lamb and someone replied that it was very good and pointed me to a whole thread praising it.

So on Sunday, I dug it out from behind a row of other books. I read the first page and was confused as to why I'd not given it a go in the first place. The first page was great - I'd obviously not got passed the cover before.

It is the tragic, but often funny tale of Dolores Price. It starts in the 1950s with the day her family get their first television, and follows her life through difficult teenage years, mental breakdown and recovery, marriage and adulthood until the 1980s. It was at time traumatic, and Dolores wasn't the most sympathetic character in places (sometimes you just wanted to give her a good shake), but it was compulsive reading. I particularly liked the way that television was a constant throughout her life and its trails.

All in all, I'm glad I dusted it off and finally got round to reading it. I hope that my other great unreads will be as enjoyable.