Inglorious

By Joanna Kavenna

Book Overview

When Rosa Lane, a promising young journalist, impulsively hits the send button on an email to her boss saying "I quit," so begins her pursuit of enlightenment in the jungles of cutthroat London. As she embarks upon her quest for a sense of purpose, she is deceived by her lover, surprised by her friends, turned out by her roommate, threatened by her bank manager, picked over by prospective employers, and tormented by all the bizarre expectations of the modern world. An erudite and darkly comic novel, brimming with lacerating wit and compassion, Inglorious is a truly engrossing character study of a woman walking the edge between self-destruction and self-discovery.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0312427883
• ISBN13: 9780312427887
• Release Date: May 2008
• Publisher: Picador USA
• Length: 304 Pages
• Weight: 0.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.5" x 8.4"

Customer Reviews

Difficult but fascinating read

I really didn't like the main protagonist for about the first third of this book but she had me hooked by the end. I think what really got me was the unflinching view of all the "actors" in this drama and the subtle slide into insanity or at least un-hinged-ness. The uncompromising view of the protagonist and her "friends", lovers and family.

Excellent Book

Brilliant writing. I liked how the story evolved, it was so undramatic which made the story more powerful and more real. The problems kept piling up, they seemed to gain a life of themselves. I am American but we seem to have this in common with the English, probably with the rest of the world to, is how debt with the interest rates, which I know on credit cards can go as high as 20% or more, can really become overwhelming. The woman in the story has all these other problems and she has the impersonal bank to deal with. Well, I didn't mean for this to become a complaint about the banking system but it seemed apt. In the end the only thing that the protagonist seems able to do is run. In the new world that seems like that will be more and more difficult to pick up and start over somewhere new. But again brilliant writing. I can't wait to read the author's first book and anything she chooses to write.