The main character, Rosa, is lovely but she does go on! But this is no different to listening to a friend who is going through bad times and as a novel, I was in no way tempted to stop reading. Rosa gives us some lovely, insightful thoughts, especially about her grandparents. Recommended. ( )

I have broken off reading about half way through as the book was getting too boring. It seems like a sort of poor woman's Silvia Plath as the protagonist falls deeper into a mental breakdown. Lots of stream of consciousness angst.
Tedious ( )

Rosa Lane is bored and restless and prone to grandiose thought. She quits her job in search of the ever elusive ‘something more.’ In the meantime, and to little surprise considering her mindset, her relationship of ten years falls apart. Adding insult to injury is a betrayal and a lack of compassion by those around her. Rosa spends her days making lists that never seem to get completed and telling herself that she’s ok, really ok, with all the changes swirling around her. She takes a lover and ignores her ex’s impending nuptials. Really, Rosa Lane is going to be just fine.
Inglorious is about lies. The lies we tell ourselves, the ones we push so deep that we start to believe them ourselves. They help us get through the day, both the mundane and the glorious points, and the extremes that cause us to go insane if we think too hard about them.
I loved this book. It was written beautifully. The author is a certain talent to the literary realm. I’ll be looking for her next offering. I’ll give that Rosa’s voice is protracted, but that’s kind of the point. Imagine how it must feel to be Rosa. There are stories we read that seem to strike a chord with the particular time in which we read them. I used to call She's Come Undone one of my favorite books and then I reread it, years later, and wondered, “What?” Inglorious is a book that hit me just right at this point in my life. I suspect others will have qualms with the character driven plot, but I identified with the protagonist.
Recommended for those who have battled depression, had a nervous breakdown, been wounded by a lover or anyone seeking insight into the mind of a girl on the edge of losing it all.

...also reviewed on Many A Quaint and Curious Volume ( )

Rosa Lane's life begins to unravel after the death of her mother. She loses everything we hold dear as markers of middle-class success: a good job, a good boyfriend, her home. To the bewilderment and annoyance of her friends and family Rosa gives herself over completely to her existential despair. Perhaps hers is the correct response to deep loss; maybe we shouldn't always be so quick to pull ourselves together. ( )

This was a curiously engaging book. I do not normally read books of this general type, but it was easy to keep going and see what would happen next. I was looking forward to a perhaps different ending, but all in all it was a fine way to wrap it up. Rosa Lane is a fascinating character, with her reflections that tend toward various philosophies to explain her difficulty with her current life situation (loss of mother, boyfriend, job, and security all in almost one go). I found myself enjoyably playing "spot the allusion" to see how many quotes, often from literary sources, I could identify. Well worth keeping and reading again someday. ( )