The novel "She's Come Undone" takes us through the forty-odd years in the life of Dolores Price. Dolores is basically crazy, but then, who in her situation wouldn't be? She's suffered enough - her dad being the violent, traitorous liar, and her mother being as emotionally and mentally stable as a three-legged horse. Every man she meets seems to be repelling as is possible. However, Dolores has a thoroughly resilient nature; and although it takes her quite some time, she drags herself from the pit of despair (not to mention overindulgence). While most kids her age were dealing with the magnetic personality of Paul McCartney, Dolores was fighting with the effects of divorce, rape, and mental illness. "Mine is a story of craving: an unreliable account of lusts and troubles that began, somehow, in 1956 on the day our free television was delivered." (p.17).
Dolores is a very strong person. Not many people could withhold from their husbands the fact that they were once in a mental institution, just like their mother, or that they once weighed 236 lbs. It would be more difficult still to keep from them the fact that you searched them out, and got to know them by stealing your roommate's letters before the roommate actually got them.
Dolores also had her weak moments of course, but many people do as they are growing up. Of course, not many people would go so far out of the way and their mind to go and swim amongst dead whales, but Dolores has the uncanny ability to do what surprises us. She also has a weakness when it comes to other people's vulnerability - that's maybe why she felt so bad for her Grandmother, all alone, for Roberta, when she needed a walker, and for Dante her husband, for most of their marriage.
The most important aspect of Dolores is that she is totally human - her life has had its ups and downs. She's decided there's no such thing as happily-ever-after. She questions God, and her worth on this planet.
