How did Oprah's selection change the author's life?

In his first novel, Wally Lamb creates a heroine--Dolores Price--who survives family insanity, rape, abuse, obesity, and the death of loved ones, emerging at the end as a strong, tough woman whose life is moving toward hope and salvation.

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.

"...A tour de force, a magnificent and beautiful first novel whose lyric voice and compelling story couple to make an astonishing debut."
-- Brett Lott

"There's so much to love in it...I adore it."
-- Elinor Lipman

"As you read [this book] your entire life will flash before your eyes....It's a bit like strolling down with Dick Clark on one arm, Jean-Paul Sartre on the other. It's scary, but Lord it's wonderful!"
-- Cathie Pelletier

"...A wonderful, inventive, ambitious, and, it cannot be stressed enough, hilarious first novel."
-- Kristin McCloy

An extraordinary coming-of-age odyssey, She's Come Undone tells the story of Dolores Price, a dysfunctional, heartbreakingly comical young heroine, and her wild journey to love, pain, and renewal. "(A) saga of moral liberation".--Glamour.