Eating crow

Lisel Schillinger

This amuse-gueule of a plot is followed by a main course worthy of an ovation.
— The New York Times

Publishers Weekly

The life of a merciless restaurant critic takes a dramatic turn when he discovers the intoxicating pleasure of penitence in this savory spoof. Moved to offer his apologies to the bereaved wife of a chef who commits suicide after reading an unforgiving review, Marc Basset has an epiphany: "I felt wonderful." Inspired, he embarks on a hunt to find all the victims of his lifelong cruelty (there are plenty) and offer them the apologies they deserve. During one especially tearful and eloquent admission of guilt, Basset's talent is recognized, and he's immediately whisked away to become the chief apologist for the U.N.'s nascent Office of Apology. Basset's new role affords him luxurious perks as he apologizes for what feels like every distasteful event in history, most of which his family has some infamous connection with. Perhaps inevitably, his triumphs turn sour, and he fears he's become a monstrous clich machine. Rayner, the restaurant critic for the London Observer, takes a wonderfully impossible, although nowadays not completely far-fetched, notion and follows it to its conclusion with irrepressible humor and sarcasm. Agent, Joy Harris. (Aug.) Forecast: A blurb from Anthony Bourdain ("A very funny book about apologies-by someone who has a lot to apologize for") should catch the eye of foodies, as should Rayner's luscious descriptions of the meals his protagonist cooks. Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

Food critic with one kill to his name is thrown into remorse and ends up as the world's official conscience-in an occasionally amusing debut by the restaurant critic for the London Observer . When a despondent chef kills himself by climbing into an large bread oven, he tapes to its door Marc Basset's review stating that said chef's food was so bad he deserved to be on death row. This sends Basset into a spiral of soul-searching, after which he decides that he will no longer write negative reviews. Given that the rotund gourmand, compensating with food and vitriol for a mostly unhappy childhood and unlucky love life, is especially known for his poison pen, this leaves his editor with little choice but to give him the boot. During Basset's time of self-flagellation, he comes to the conclusion that he needs to apologize to everyone he had wronged in his past, a quest that culminates when he tracks down the woman to whom he lost his virginity in college so that he can apologize for boasting about it to his pals later. Not thinking too much about how odd it is that she wants to videotape his confession, the unemployed Basset finds his teary visage being e-mailed around the world; people can't get enough of how dramatically contrite he is. One twist of fate later, he has been named Chief Apologist for the United Nations. First major assignment: apologize officially to the African-American community for slavery. It should be a devastatingly funny, but Rayner is unfortunately, though unsurprisingly, much more comfortable with food (the scenes of Basset cooking are simply unfair they're so mouthwatering) than with geopolitical satire. This British newcomer deserves praise for not hewing to a moresimple black-comic narrative, but like Basset, he flies too high, too fast and gets burned for his efforts. Agent: Joy Harris/Joy Harris Literary Agency