1. Summarize Part 1 "Our Lady of Sorrow." Dolores begins to think of it in terms of television and believed that her parents were like Lucy and Ricky Ricardo of "I Love Lucy" —they loved each other but were just noisy. They fought non stop. Her father worked for a lady named Mrs. Masicotte. He mostly collected rent. He didn't spend much time at home because he was always working. When Dolores was in the second grade her mother conceived and was expecting to have a baby. Her husband did not want the baby, so Dolores was picked up at school by her Grandmother Holland and was told her mother was in the hospital. When her mother returns home she does not come out of her room. Later Dolores has a nightmare about her teacher and says "she hates her" but instead of the truth she points at her grandmother. Soon the family move sot Treetop Acres, where her father becomes obsessed with his yard. He is always outside working when he isn't working for Mrs. Masicotte. Her parents still continued the abuse and her mother kept taking it. Soon Dolores makes a best friend, Jeanette Nord. Jeanette teaches Dolores about sex and Dolores finds it repulsive and thinks she will never have sex. Dolores father decides to have an in ground pool put in which prompts a fight between her parents. He hits his wife and let her parakeet go. He tells Dolores that what happens in the house stays in the house, she's not to tell anyone else. She soon learns that her parents are getting a divorced. Her mother has a mental breakdown and goes into the physic ward. Dolores gets sent to live with her strict catholic grandmother in Rhode Island. Dolores and her grandmother are cautiously polite, both remembering Dolores' outburst about hating her grandmother. While Dolores hates school, she makes an unlikely friend in Roberta, the woman who runs a tattoo parlor across the street from Dolores' grandma. She also get picked on in school constantly but still trys to make friends with the pysyk sisters, but the girls are very rude. She receives a package from her mother of a painting of a leg with wings. Dolores' mother is released from the hospital and there's a tentative peace between Dolores and her , as Grandma Holland disapproves of her daughter's bad habits. Most of all smoking. She's unsuccessful at finding a job but walks each evening. Dolores never goes with her mother and says her return is always a surprise that she's looking for signs of "weird" and is braced for the news that her mother has gone back to the mental hospital. Meanwhile, Dolores is third in the class with regard to grades and always among the last three chosen for teams of any kind. It's in that climate that her mother shares some of her thoughts. She shares that Grandma Holland had helped make her less self-assured and that she'd hated the time her husband spent with Mrs. Masicotte. Dolores takes a chance, reaches over for her mother's cigarette, takes a drag, and begins talking about her problems with the Pysyk sisters. When her mother has an interview as a receptionist for a pest control company, Dolores reassures her that she'll get the job. But when her mother doesn't return home by supper time, Dolores expects that she's run away or even committed suicide. Later, she returns with a new hair-do but has skipped the interview. Her mother then gets a job in a tollbooth and encounters her husband when he calls Dolores. When her grandmothers tenant dies from upstairs, a couple named Jack and Rita Speight. Everyone is taken by them and agree to share dinner at their house one night. Dolores realizes that she and Jack will typically be leaving for school and work at the same time. She imagines getting a ride to class in Jack's MG sports car and figures that will boost her popularity. Dolores again says she hates school and tells her mother that she might be sick, that she feels cancer growing in her stomach. Her mother jokingly asks if Dolores might be pregnant, but Dolores says her mother is the one with all the boyfriends. One evening, Jack borrows a screwdriver to work on a fan. He and Dolores sit on his porch and talk, Jack saying that he might have to move because of his job. Dolores says she doesn't want him to move because the house was boring before they arrived. Jack then confides that Rita is pregnant, but asks Dolores not to tell. He says that Rita has miscarried twice. At one point, he reaches over and touches her foot, asking if she's ticklish. He tickles for a moment, then climbs on top of her and begins to rape her. Dolores starts crying but Jack says he was only trying to cheer them up. The next morning, Jack arrives with donuts for breakfast and offers to drive Dolores to school. On the way, Jack apologizes and reminds Dolores that she's not to tell about the pregnancy. She points out the Pysyk sisters and Jack honks the horn, waving at them to be sure they see Dolores in his car. That day, Dolores meets Norma French, a rough girl who talks about her boyfriend Kenny and curses continually. That evening, Jack drives up to Dolores on her walk home and offers her a ride, which she accepts. She then takes a puff from his cigarette and he says she's "naughty". Jack begins showing up to give Dolores a ride home several days a week. Some days, he is moody. Other days, he strokes her hair and make jokes. Dolores lies, saying that she's staying late at school to make up for the hours she spends riding around with Jack. She begins to gorge herself on junk food after school. She daydreams of Rita's death, resulting in Dolores taking on the role of wife and mother to Jack and his child. Jack teases her about keeping him waiting and she snaps back that she couldn't just leave class. Jack then tells her that he has one more month before he's out of a job. Jack takes Dolores for a ride into the country to an animal shelter. Jack says the dogs there are sad, but Dolores thinks they look riled and dangerous. Then Jack begins rubbing Dolores' back and kisses her. Jack shows her a pornographic magazine but Dolores keeps insisting that she wants to go home. Then Jack begins to run his penis inside his pants and tells Dolores to look. He then rapes her. On the way home, he raves about killing his wife, leaving a note that will implicate Dolores for his own suicide, and tells her that she's partly responsible. Then he tells her that he feels closer to her now. In November, Rita tells Bernice, Dolores, and Grandma that she's pregnant, then miscarries a few days later. Dolores things that it happened because of her actions with Jack. Dolores eventually goes to Roberta and tells her about the rape. Roberta then takes Dolores back home and tells her mother.

2. Summarize Part 2 "Whales."

After her mother finds out about the rape, she takes Dolores to the emergency room but declines to press charges, telling the state police that Dolores is only thirteen years old and just needs to forget it happened. Jack "sneaks away" the following weekend, taking the Speight's household items. Dolores demands to be allowed to home school for the rest of the year and her mother agrees. Dolores is forced to talk with a psychiatrist, which she hates. When Dolores starts public high school, she skips many days, faking illness. Her mother is filled with regret for her daughter's rape. During Dolores' high school years, she becomes dependent on her guidance counselor, Mr. Pucci. One day, he calls Dolores into his office and she discovers that her mother is also there and that they are to discuss Dolores' future. Mr. Pucci suggests college, despite Dolores' grades and conduct. He says that if she doesn't attend, she may regret it. Her mother demands that Dolores plan to go to college and refuses to hear otherwise. Her mother then writes an essay and turns it in with Dolores' college application to Merton College in Pennsylvania. It's that essay that gets Dolores accepted. Dolores still refuses and her mother eventually cuts off the cord to her television, promising to have it fixed only when Dolores completes the physical requirements to attend college. It's Grandma who locates a doctor who'll do an incomplete physical, with "None of that other monkey business". The doctor tells her that she's only five-foot, five-inches tall, and weighs two hundred, fifty-seven pounds. He tells her that she must lose weight for medical reasons. When the television repairman fixes the TV cord, Dolores sits watching her favorite shows and stuffing herself with junk food. Dolores then comes up with a plan to get out of college, she simply won't graduate high school. Then she receives one hundred dollars from her father. Her mother and Grandma prepare for Dolores' graduation but she doesn't go. Instead, she purchases a slab of roast beef that costs $79 and gorges herself. Dolores then gets a letter from Kathy Strednicki who is assigned as Dolores' roommate. Dolores whines some more, telling her mother that she might become so depressed at college that she may slit her wrists. Bernice tells her that if she doesn't want to go, she should just not go, that she'd thought she could force the issue but was obviously wrong. At 3:15 that next morning, Dolores is awakened by voices. It's police telling Grandma that Bernice was killed just outside her tollbooth. Dolores is amazed that people she knows visit the funeral home to pay their respects. Dolores skips her mother's funeral then writes a letter to the girl destined to be her college roommate. She tells her that they seem to have a lot in common and agrees to pay half the cost of Indian print curtains and bedspreads. She then mails the letter, pledging that it's for her mother. Dolores tells her grandmother that she's going to college and her grandmother asks why Dolores put her mother through all the grief if she was simply going to give in and go. Grandma doesn't express an opinion either way, but presents Dolores with her college checkbook. Dolores invents a completely different life for herself as she's writing to her intended roommate, who calls herself "Kippy". She says that she has a boyfriend, Derek, who is from England, and a part-time job. Kippy confesses in her own letters that she is still a virgin, though her boyfriend Dante is pressing her. Dolores writes that Derek is doing the same, though she doesn't want to end up pregnant and living in England with Derek. Dolores arrives at Merten College an entire week early. She knocks at the door of her dorm and a fat cleaning lady appears. The woman isn't friendly and tells Dolores that it's a wonder a "fatty like you" can fit in the tiny state of Rhode Island. Dolores returns with a "fuck you" and the lady walks away. Later, the lady, who Dolores learns is Dottie, returns and tells Dolores that she'll allow her to spend the night in the dorm. She warns that she shouldn't watch television or have lights on after dark. Dottie calls Dolores at a quarter of ten that night and says she'll bring cream cake early the next morning. She tells Dolores that she's lucky Dottie didn't have plans for the evening so that she could call. Over cake for breakfast, Dottie tells Dolores that she may be a fat slob, but that Dottie immediately recognized that Dolores was a "clean" fat slob. Dottie makes fun of the painting dolores's mother had done and Dolores realizes that she should probably ship it home. Dottie and Dolores spend the week together. Dolores helps clean and Dottie continually brings food. On the day Kippy arrives, Dolores has a hangover and is passing foul-smelling gas. Kippy and her parents are aghast at Dolores. During the first dorm meeting, Rochelle, the dorm president, warns the girls to be wary of Dottie, who is a lesbian. Dolores quickly vows to lose weight in order to be perfect for Kippy. Later, Kippy is injured in a game and Dolores becomes her slave, fetching anything she needs and even attending her classes to gather her assignments. Dolores says that she has a gland problem, then confesses that it's not true. She then tells Kippy that her mother died, but Kippy is skeptical. Often, Kippy has a visitor, Eric, and Dolores is to leave the room so that the two of them could be alone together. One day, Dolores is taking Kippy food when she happens to meet Dottie. Dolores has avoided the woman since Rochelle said Dottie was a "lezzie", and Dottie asks why. Dolores recalls a kiss Dottie gave her while the two were drunk during that first week on campus. Then Dottie tells Dolores that Kippy makes fun of Dolores behind her back. Dolores says it can't be true but when she arrives in the room, Kippy asks for an Orange Crush. Dolores says she's busy and suggests Kippy get her own. Dolores quickly begins skipping class and finds herself in trouble because of her attendance.One night, Dolores gets a phone call from Dottie who begs her to come for supper that Saturday. She doesn't get anywhere until she tells Dolores that she'll reveal what Kippy has been saying about her. Then she tells Dolores that she loves her. That night, Kippy talks to Dolores, asking about her mothers accident. Dolores is just thinking that Kippy is sincere when she asks if Dolores would wash a load of dark clothes the following day. Dolores has begun opening Kippy's letters from Dante and she finds one that has photos of Dante in the nude. In the letter, he says that not making love before Kippy left could have been the biggest mistake of his life, and that he loves her. Dolores then gets high with a girl named Naomi who talks of socialism and injustices in the world. On Halloween night, Dolores is headed outside when Eric grabs her and begins trying to dance with her. Despite Dolores' protests, Eric rubs his crotch against her while his friends yell obscenities such as "hump time". Dolores uses her knee to kick Eric in the crotch twice. When she later returns to hear dorm room, Eric has destroyed her possessions, including the picture her mother painted. Dolores cuts a small square of the picture then runs outside. Not knowing what else to do, she calls Dottie, who picks her up. The two go to a restaurant then to Dottie's house. Dolores learns that Dottie has a son who died. Dolores notes that there's a segment on television about whales that simply swim up on the beach where they'll surely die. Dottie begins to touch Dolores who protests until Dottie asks what difference it could possibly make. They have oral sex together. Later, Dottie sleeps but Dolores goes into the kitchen where she is about to slit her wrists. She sees the picture of Dottie's son and changes her mind. Then she kills all the fish in Dottie's tanks and leaves the apartment. Across the street, Dolores agrees to pay a man $400 for a ride to Cape Cod where the whales continued to beach themselves. When she is left on the beach she sees a dying whale and decides to commit suicide but backs out. Later, a patrolman arrives asking who she was, when she tells him, he tells her a lot of people are worried about her.

3. Summarize Part 3 "The Flying Leg."

The next section of the book begins at Gracewood Institute. Dolores spends four years at the private mental hospital and three more as an outpatient of the program. It's here that Dolores meets Dr. Shaw after going through two other psychotherapists. Geneva Sweet pays for the hospital and flies in to see Dolores. Grandma visits weekly and Dolores believes that Grandma has kept the mental hospital a secret from friends. It's while Dolores is working with Dr. Shaw that she realizes that she killed the fish because she was angry at Eric. Dolores works through many of her issues, including admitting that she over eats when is angry. Dolores begins to lose weight. During one session with Dr. Shaw, Dolores is to pretend that she's a fetus and Dr. Shaw is her mother. Dolores is in the Gracewood pool when Dr. Shaw is almost electrocuted. Dolores notes that Dr. Shaw is the only parent who never left her. In the summer of 1973, Dolores moves into a group home called Project Outreach House. With no job, Dolores is "stuck" with household chores, including cooking, grocery shopping, and cleaning. During one of the therapy sessions in the pool, Dolores reveals that her mother had once called her father a "whore" because of the time he spent with his employer, Mrs. Masicotte. She rails about the secrets she's lived with, including the fights between her parents, and how her mother consoled her after the rape by providing more junk food. When Dolores finishes, she and Dr. Shaw hold each other and cry for a long time. Dolores comes to a better understanding of her mother, then comes to a tenuous peace with her memories the two people she hates most, her father and Jack Speight. Then she accepts a job at a photo lab. Dolores notes that the employees weren't supposed to return pornographic photos, but she slips them through. She also comes to "know" the Ficketts, who photograph each other in coffins. Dolores begins consulting a psychic and wants to quit her sessions with Dr. Shaw, saying that she's tired of digging into the past and wants to consider the future. She's down to one hundred, thirty-eight pounds. It's while Dolores is working in the photo lab that she is handed a roll of film that includes photos of a school field trip. The teacher is Dante, Kippy's boyfriend from so long ago. Dolores had continually opened Kippy's mail from Dante and feels as if she knows him personally. Dolores begins to think of Dante as her future.

Dante immediately invites Dolores to dinner at his apartment then asks if she wants to go to bed or keep it casual. She agrees to "make love" then Dante asks if she's on the pill. She says yes, though it's a lie. Dolores cries but Dante is gentle and they culminate the evening in sex. Dolores gets a job at a grocery store and begins doing laundry and ironing for Dante. Dolores and Dante continue to have sex, though Dolores is not using birth control. They seem to ease into living together though they continue to have both apartments. They have their first argument when Dante is griping about something and Dolores doesn't seem to know how to offer comfort. When they reunite, they have sex on the floor and Dante is rough, but Dolores says she's so grateful for his love that she'll take it on any terms. Then Dolores discovers that she's pregnant but she doesn't yet tell Dante. When she tells him, she lies and says that it happened despite the birth control pills. Dante says he doesn't want children. He writes her a love poem but refuses to talk about the possibility of having children together. Dolores makes an appointment for an abortion but is torn. She is certain the baby is a girl and she begins referring to her as Vita Marie. She toys with the idea of slipping away and having the child but fears that she'll lose Dante during that time. She finally makes a list of the things she loves about Dante, his hands, voice, sex, dedication to work, "he loves me back" and "he made me somebody new". She weighs that against things she loves about Vita Marie and has nothing on that side of her list. Dante goes on a skiing trip the day after Christmas while Dolores stays at home and prepares for the abortion. Mrs. Wing, the landlady, goes with Dolores for her appointment. Dante then asks Dolores to marry him. Dolores is emotionally drained and aches for her loss, but is unable to truly talk with Dante about it. Grandma and Dante's parents arrive for the wedding. Grandma gives Dolores a locket she'd gotten from Dolores' grandfather on their second anniversary. She also gave her two thousand, two hundred dollars in cash. Grandma talks briefly about her life and both say they wish her mother could be there for the wedding. Dante decides to take a leave from his job to take a trip. When they arrive home he reveals he was fired in June after being accused of having an inappropriate relationship with a student. Dolores wants to hire a lawyer to fight the school, but Dante says he agreed not to fight and the school agreed not to press charges. Dante lays around the apartment while Dolores works two jobs. They sell the van, buying a cheaper car. One day, Dolores arrives home early and finds Sheila in the apartment with Dante, Sheila doesn't have her jeans on. The two are sharing a hot dog, though Dante is a vegetarian. Dante leaves and Dolores doesn't answer his calls for six days. Then she receives word that her grandmother died and calls him, asking for support. Dante drives her to her grandmothers house. He makes all the arrangements and Dolores signs the papers. Dante continues to tell Dolores that he's sorry for having had sex with Sheila, that he loves Dolores, and that he wants them to reunite. Dolores points out that Dante had been dishonest, telling her that he hadn't done what he was accused of. When Dolores finds her letters to her grandmother, she looks back at her fairy tale accounts of her life with Dante, sees that dishonesty, and thinks that she probably earned Dante's dishonesty. Dolores and Dante visit with the lawyer, a former classmate of Dolores' who doesn't recognize her, and learn that a "smallish" bank account and the house have been willed to Dolores. Dolores says to sell it but Dante says not yet and Dolores gives in. On the way home, Dolores suddenly "comes undone" and tells Dante that she was raped at thirteen, that she lost weight while at a mental hospital by imagining that mold was growing on her food, and that she remains a vegetarian because of the abortion. Then she tells him that her roommate at college was Kippy Strednicki and Dante gets angry, yelling obscenities at Dolores until the manager comes over. Then he leaves Dolores at a Burger King in Massachusetts.
The division of their possessions is handled over the phone and Dolores receives a box of items from Dante, addressed to "Dolores Davis, Certified Lunatic". She then moves into her grandmothers house and takes a part-time job, working for Mrs. Gutwax at her bakery. Her son, Ronnie, is somewhat taken with Dolores. Dolores begins to do poorly at her job because she spends long hours watching television at night. The owners fire her. She works full time at the bakery until the day Ronnie asks to kiss her. They kiss until Ronnie has an erection, then Dolores writes her resignation letter and leaves the store. At the end of that summer, Dolores gets a letter from her father's third wife saying that Tony had died. One afternoon, Dante arrives with Dolores' old black and white television set. The house is a wreck with moldy food lying everywhere. He has a girl with him and as he's leaving he tells Dolores that she needs to get herself under control. Dolores looks around and realizes that she's falling back into old habits. She gets a seventy-five percent refund on the satellite and buys a gas-guzzling car. Dolores finds tapes in the car and when she plays one, discovers it's the sound of humpback whales.

She decides to go back to college. Dolores has met a man named Thayer in her class. The teacher, Roy, reads both Dolores' and Thayer's essays as the best in the class. Thayer is a giant of a man, too large to fit in the desks. He sits on the floor during class. After class, Dolores talks to Thayer but the conversation is stilted. He asks her out, tells her he has a thirteen-year-old son and is divorced. He then fixes Dolores' ceiling for a fraction what other contracts had quoted. On Christmas Eve, Dolores makes a delivery of Chinese food to Mr. Pucci. She agrees to go in for a drink and finds that Gary—Mr. Pucci's roommate from all those years ago, has AIDS and has wasted away to almost nothing. Thayer continues to ask her out and finally asks if she's turning him down because of his size. One day, Thayer and his son, Jamal, arrive at Dolores' house. Both Jamal and Thayer improvise a rap song, finally convincing Dolores to have dinner with them. A few nights later, Dolores stops by Mr. Pucci's house when she sees his light on in the middle of the night. She hands him an African violet and they begin taking nightly rides together. By this time, Gary has died and they don't talk about how he died, focusing instead on his singing voice and knowledge of travel. Many nights later, Dolores and Mr. Pucci talk about Gary and Mr. Pucci says that he's HIV positive. Dolores has dinner with Thayer. On their second date, she stays most of the night and tells him everything—that she was fat, that she'd been raped, that she'd spent time in a mental institution, and about her mother's death. On their third date, Dolores asks Thayer to make her pregnant. He hesitates and she takes it for a no. He says that he wants to be responsible and consider the ramifications. Then he asks her to do it "the regular way," including marriage. Dolores and Thayer begin having sex monthly based on the days Dolores believes herself to be ovulating. Thayer swears his love but Dolores holds him at arm's length. They argue, Thayer continuing to say that he wants to get married, and Dolores sends him away. She's positive that she's pregnant but then starts her period again. Dolores is called to Mr. Pucci's hospital bedside and she knows immediately that he's dying. He advises her to accept love where it's offered. Six months after his death, a moving company delivers Mr. Pucci's juke box to Dolores' house. It's while she's sitting in the machine's purple glow that Thayer walks in. Dolores tells him that she drew him once—complete with his new glasses—on an Etch-a-Sketch, and that she'd believed that he would make her happy. She then proposes. Over the next two years, Thayer and Dolores are unsuccessful with their attempts to have a child. The doctor tells them to make a decision regarding another attempt at artificial means, but Dolores says their savings account already made that decision for them. Then Dolores and Thayer go on a road trip, though Thayer won't say where they're headed. Along the way, Dolores says that Jack Speight undid her, then she almost undid herself, then she undid some of the damage. He takes her to Cape Cod on a whale-watching expedition. They don't see any until just before the trip ends. Then Dolores, alone on the deck, is the first to see one.

9. How is Mr. Pucci a "life saver" for Dolores? He is a life safer for Dolores in helping her through high school and when he finally realizes also through life. In high school, they had a tight relationship and he encouraged her to go to college. She goes to college but never forgets Mr. Pucci. She discovers when her grandmother passes away Mr. Pucci is gay and his roommate is dying of aids and soon after himself is dying of aids. They become close friends in this time and he makes her feel accepted by the world, by coming to peace with her life. He tells her they were connected by fate and it wasn't a confidence they became so close. He also tells her he has never stopped thinking about her. He teachers her that you can never be certain about people. He helps her move on from her horrifying past.