Product Description

Rosa Lane is a fashionable journalist in her thirties, already the picture of London achievement. Her handsome boyfriend is something in politics and her other friends are confident, prosperous and ambitious. But one afternoon, staring at her computer screen at work, she fails to see the point, walks out of her job - and begins her long fall from modern grace.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #97723 in Books
• Published on: 2008-04-10
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 288 pages

Review
"'This is a superb piece of writing, and a disturbing, witty commentary on modern life.' The Times"

Sunday Business Post
'A riveting, witty look at one woman's place in society ... more than anything this is a very darkly funny book.'

About the Author
Joanna Kavenna is the acclaimed author of The Ice Museum. She has lived in America, Germany, Scandinavia and France, and shared her time between Paris and London whilst writing Inglorious, her first novel.

Customer Reviews

Beautiful and unique
This is a completely wonderful and unique book. It is quite different from the author's first book except it is also about myth and heroism, as her previous. The treatment is very different nonetheless. It tells of a woman who decides that the life she has been living - her job, her relationship - is simply not what she wants to do anymore. Instead of moaning to her colleagues by the water cooler but turning up every day noinetheless, she leaves her job and her relationship and goes on a quest for meaning. This quest involves lots of walking around London and various other journeys - to the Lake District, to Paris. it is hilariously funny, because every day the main character Rosa Lane decides this will be the day when she reads great philosophers and generally enriches herself, but of course every day she just does the same semi-useful semi-formless stuff as she usually does - as we all usually do. it reminded me at times of Hamsun's Hunger - in the passion and rage of the central character, and the surprising moments of humour and beauty. Amazingly written, in distinctive, elegant prose, this novel takes you on a compelling journey through the inner life of an ordinary woman, and makes a case for the grandeur of even an ordinary person's quest for meaning and purpose.

A Homage To Thomas Pynchon?
This is a pretty special book - it is not without its flaws - I agree with other reviewers that the narrative can become repetitive and slightly depressing - it returns again and again to the same themes. However,this refelcts the heroine's inner state which is almost complusively procrastinatory. (and compulisive procrastination is a recognised form of OCD, for all the reasons Rosa gives reference to for her own malaise...a problem with accepting temporality and mortality being at the heart).. Rosa is stalled in her life.(so occasionbally the book also seems stalled on the same page) She is attempting to throw off what she perceives as insincere and inauthentic in life, but she is unable to find replacement meaning, nor to summon the motivation to transform her own state. As a commentary on some aspects of modern life and a way of using the classic "quest" theme, refering constantly to the history of the philosophy of ideas/literary movements etc....it is really very beautifully and intelligently done. The dark humour is actually very witty and prevents it from otherwise being a rather relentlessly dark read. I think many people would recognise their own thoughts and feelings in Rosa's inner narrative. What struck me from the start is its simularities to the great Thoams Pynchon's extraordinary short novel, The Crying Of Lot 49 - especially Rosa's obsession with discovering the meaning of "The Temp" - so very Pynchonesque, that I wondered if it was a bit cheeky claiming it as Kavanna's own but for all I know she has never read the book....still, as I love Pychon's masterpiece more than almost any other book, it must mean something that I also count Inglorious as one of the most original, refreshing and compulsively readable novels I have read in a long time.

poetic or just dreary?
the book is beautifully written and is a very accurate description of what it's like to wander around without direction - metaphorically and literally. i thought i would enjoy this book as i can relate to this state - the narrator has many plans but as she doesn't know what she wants she gets nothing done. however, whether or not the reader will enjoy reading this depends on whether the endless description is perceived as poetic - or just depressing. i for one couldn't bear it any more halfway through and went on to read something less dreary.