Marc Basset has a well-deserved reputation as a pitiless restaurant critic. When he writes a devastating review of a celebrated restaurant, the chef commits suicide, roasting himself in his own fan-assisted oven, with Basset's review pasted to the door. Suddenly Basset is moved to do something he has never done before: apologize. Startled by the widow's forgiveness and absolution, he feels unexpectedly euphoric. In an effort to maintain this newfound state of bliss, he decides to gorge himself on contrition by apologizing to every person he has ever done wrong. And that's just the beginning. After a series of virtuoso expressions of regret, word of Basset's mollifying power spreads, and he is tapped to become Chief Apologist for the United Nations. His job is to travel the globe in his own Gulfstream V private jet, apologizing for everything from colonialism through exploitation to slavery. It is a role that brings him fame, wealth, and access to a lot of very good chocolate. But in a world overdosing on emotion, does Marc Basset really have the stomach to become the sorriest man in history? Built of delicate layers of heinous crime, forgiveness, and outrageous gastronomy, Jay Rayner's hilarious new novel is an arch comedy of modern appetite and etiquette.
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About the Author:
Jay Rayner is an award-winning journalist and broadcaster who is now the London Observer's restaurant critic. He is married and lives in London.
From Booklist:
This novel of regret begins with apology and wallows in remorse throughout, but it nevertheless induces plenty of hearty laughs. Critic Marc Basset's pompous, venomous restaurant review, published in the name of "interesting" writing, causes a depressive chef to seal himself in one of the restaurant's ovens. The newly deflated Basset, facing public opprobrium, apologizes to the chef's wife for his odious prose. Reflecting on all his supposed failings since adolescence, he then seeks out his first jilted sexual conquest. A broadcast apology for another supposed sin turns out to be deliciously cathartic for Basset and bestows minor celebrityhood. This leads to a new career for Basset: penitential engagement, which thrusts him onto the world stage where he must deal gravely with life-and-death situations. Rayner adroitly mocks the current fashion for public figures' mawkishly fawning for forgiveness in the media. This is interspersed with acerbic insights into the current state of cuisine. Through his characters, Rayner shows how even so unassuming an action as saying "I'm sorry" can be perverted into something far removed from true reconciliation. Mark Knoblauch
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"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
- PublisherSimon & Schuster
- Publication date2005
- ISBN 10 0743250613
- ISBN 13 9780743250610
- BindingPaperback
- Number of pages304
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Rating