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Kathy Najimy recommended She's Come Undone in Books (curated)

 
She's Come Undone
She's Come Undone
Wally Lamb | 1999 | Contemporary, Fiction & Poetry
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Favorite

"The first and only fan letter I wrote to an author (other than to Gloria Steinem) was to Wally Lamb. It started with, “How can a man have written this book?” I bathed in Wally Lamb’s creation of a flawed but fascinating heroine teen girl who morphs into a sometimes misled, powerful and flawed adult woman. Her life’s adventures and choices, both positive and positively horrid, still touch me on my third, fourth and fifth read of this novel. (I loved it so much I voiced the book on tape.)"

Source
  
Book number 6 in Elizabeth Peter's Amelia Peabody (think female Victorian Indiana Jones) series, which sees Amelia, her husband Radcliffe and son Ramses back in the dusty climes of Egypt following their adventures in the previous ([b: The Deeds of the Disturber|32139|The Deeds of the Disturber (Amelia Peabody, #5)|Elizabeth Peters|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1388887764s/32139.jpg|2176252]).

I have to say, though, that the plot of this one is more-than-slightly reminiscent of [a: H Rider Haggard|4633123|H. Rider Haggard|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1298296700p2/4633123.jpg]'s [b: King Solomon's Mines|108914|In Search of King Solomon's Mines|Tahir Shah|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1348655880s/108914.jpg|4188], pretty much just swapping the African setting and characters of that novel for the dusty climes of Egypt - a similarity that Emerson, in a bit of meta-fiction, himself complains about.

Throw in a dash of [b: She|5203|She's Come Undone|Wally Lamb|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1408313457s/5203.jpg|1003370] (also by H Rider Haggard) with a soupcon of intrigue and more entertaining byplay between the Emerson's (with Ramses his usual precocious self), and the result is another entertaining read in the series.
  
I'll Take You There
I'll Take You There
Wally Lamb | 2016 | Fiction & Poetry
8
8.5 (2 Ratings)
Book Rating
Felix Funicello is a film professor who lives in Connecticut. He is divorced and has one daughter, Eliza, who is currently working for New York Magazine. Felix also has two older sister, Simone and Frances who are an integral part of his life. Felix hold a movie club on Monday nights in the old Vaudeville theater in town. One night as he is setting up, he is visited by the ghost of Lois Weber, a renowned film director in her time. Lois shows Felix glimpses of his life along with the important women in it. Through these snapshots, Felix gains a greater understanding of the women in his life and women in general.

This book was reminiscent to A Christmas Carol, but he is visited by the same ghost, who brings three different visitors with her. Felix is first returned to his six year-old self. Where he and his sisters are helping their neighbor gather votes to become the next Rheingold Girl. Rheingold is a beer. This happens after his daughter tells him she has to write a piece about these girls.

The next transportation is a few years later when Felix is twelve. His mother and sister are talking in the kitchen about her boss being inappropriate with her at work. This part I heard just a few days after hearing day after day about a new man in a high position has been removed because of inappropriate behavior in the work place. Mind you, this is taking place in the early '60s and times were different, but some things never change. As Eliza, is telling her mother about what her boss has said, it's the mother's response that truly strikes me.
<i>"Men are men. Shapely girls like you just have to put up with stuff like that in the working world or else quit. Those are your choices."</i>
Thank God, those are no longer our choices, and that shouldn't have been the mentality then, maybe we wouldn't have all these issues today.

Also during this trip, Felix is given some news about his family that will change the dynamic forever.

The final time Lois comes to visit, the guest she brings, gives Felix a testimony that he has wondered about in the back of his mind for most of his life. That helps to fill a missing piece. The story is sad and is a part of the two previous visits from Lois.

All of these visits help Felix to be a better man, brother and father to the women in his life.

I think this is a very important book for all women to read, especially with the things going on in our world today. Told from the male point of view, I think it helps to see that some men can be empathetic to the plights of women. And this books covers a lot of those plights, from feminism, to abortion, adoption and acceptance. Years ago, I read She's Come Undone by Wally Lamb and I remember feeling the same way after reading it. Read them both.