64 pages 2 hours read

Wally Lamb

She's Come Undone

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1992

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Part 3, Chapters 20-25Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 3: “The Flying Leg”

Part 3, Chapter 20 Summary

At the photo lab, Dolores receives some rolls of film from a woman whose high school photographs show pictures of Dante in adulthood, as a teacher. Determined to make her own happiness, Dolores saves her money and moves to where Dante now lives, in Montpelier, Vermont, to the same apartment building that Dante lives in. Her hope is to start a future with him. The apartment itself is meager, but right across from Dante’s. She is soon invited upstairs by the elderly couple that owns the apartment, Mrs. Wing and Chadley Massey. Chadley proves himself to be only interested in seducing Dolores and touches her leg when Mrs. Wing leaves the room. Dolores stands up for herself and demands that he stop, insults him, and pushes a spatula into his hand to instill some pain. She goes back to her apartment and cries but reminds herself that she has made it this far and has the power to stop people from degrading her.

Dolores goes outside and finds a garden in the back that she later discovers belongs to Dante. When he pulls up in his car and asks for help fixing it, it turns into an opportunity to ask her for supper instead.