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Eating Crow
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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First published January 1, 2004
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About the author
Jay Rayner
21 books86 followersJay Rayner is a British journalist, writer and broadcaster born in 1966.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 70 reviews
November 8, 2014
Restaurant critic Jay Rayner here writes a book about a restaurant critic. A review by the fictional main character, Marc Basset, causes a restaurant owner to kill himself. Basset apologies and likes the feeling of apologising so goes on a mission to apologise for all the bad things he had done. Next thing he knows he ends up being a professional apologist for the United Nations.
The idea is fantastic. Isn't there a part in all of us that wants to go cleanse ourselves by apologising for all the bad things. The trouble is that despite the good basic idea, I feel that Rayner didn't really have a strong enough plot to go with it. I think when the whole United Nations is involved, about half way through, it starts to lose it's focus and drifts into an average book. Before that, it's wonderful.
It's clear that Rayner is a professional writer and his style is wonderful to read. It very much feels like the character is talking to you as the reader, something which happens so rarely. Rayner captures snapshots of life really well. Many of the bits of the character's past felt very much based on real experience and they are by far the strongest moments of the book. The flashbacks were full of guilt and reality and I found myself relating really closely to some of them.
I always find books like this very frustrating. It's well written, has relatable characters and a stunning premise. It should be an excellent book but the plot just isn't strong enough for that to happen. A whisker away from brilliance.
The idea is fantastic. Isn't there a part in all of us that wants to go cleanse ourselves by apologising for all the bad things. The trouble is that despite the good basic idea, I feel that Rayner didn't really have a strong enough plot to go with it. I think when the whole United Nations is involved, about half way through, it starts to lose it's focus and drifts into an average book. Before that, it's wonderful.
It's clear that Rayner is a professional writer and his style is wonderful to read. It very much feels like the character is talking to you as the reader, something which happens so rarely. Rayner captures snapshots of life really well. Many of the bits of the character's past felt very much based on real experience and they are by far the strongest moments of the book. The flashbacks were full of guilt and reality and I found myself relating really closely to some of them.
I always find books like this very frustrating. It's well written, has relatable characters and a stunning premise. It should be an excellent book but the plot just isn't strong enough for that to happen. A whisker away from brilliance.
January 28, 2019
I enjoy restaurant reviews – both writing them and reading them. However with the same sort of fascination that drew crowds to public hangings and floggings for many centuries, I’d have to admit that I like a review that gives a place a really tough savaging. I don’t necessarily believe all I read, but there’s something to be said for a strong opinion. So when I came across Jay Rayner’s book ‘The Apologist‘ I was hooked before I was half way through the first paragraph of cover ‘blurb’.
Rayner’s protagonist Marc Basset is a savage restaurant critic of the type that seems common in most major newspapers. In the age of the celebrity chef there’s a good trade in celebrity critics and Basset is one such critic. This is the man who described one meal as likely to “taste better coming back up than it did going down” and the staff of a fish restaurant where everyone wore waders and cagoules as “dressed for an exceptionally safe sex party”. After dipping his pen (or keyboard) in a touch more vitriol than normal, he cranks out an excoriating review of a top restaurant only to find that the restaurateur has taken his criticism rather too personally and has climbed into his own oven and roasted himself with a copy of Basset’s review taped to the over door. There’s not too much risk of misinterpreting such a gesture.
Basset is forced to examine himself and his writing and realises that he’s really not a very nice person and never has been. Even to the people he loves, he can be a bit of a bastard. Writing about one bad restaurant he proclaims that if he wanted food that bad he could stay at home and let his girlfriend cook for him. We’d be right in thinking this guy doesn’t deserve a girlfriend at all, let alone one who’d cook for him.
Facing up to his own snobby nastiness Basset decides it’s time to do the honourable thing and heads off to the restaurant to apologise to the chef’s wife. When it all goes much better than could have been expected, he discovers that ‘sorry’ really is a powerful word. The wife feels better (cue the mother introducing Basset to her small child who recognises the name and asks “Mummy, what’s a wanker?”) and less angry at him and makes him feel like less of a rotter. After years of being hooked on food and venomous criticism, Basset has found a new and dangerous addiction – repentance.
Not since Earl Hickey of Channel 4’s series ‘My Name is Earl’ set out to apologise and make amends to hundreds of people he’d lied to, stolen from or otherwise abused, has a fictional character taken such delight in wallowing in his past sins and asking for forgiveness. Basset is soon buzzing around apologising to all and sundry for all manner of misdemeanours. There’s the fat girl he kissed and fondled, the best friend from college days whom he set up to walk in on his girlfriend with another man, the colleague he made sick with bad fish in order to steal his job and many more victims. Basset’s eager to make amends to them all. He also vows to only write reviews that emphasise the good in the restaurants he visits which inevitably leads him to lose his job.
Just when it seems that Basset has blown his life and his career in pursuit of apology, he hits the big time with an apology to the girl who unburdened him of his student virginity. She insists on filming him and within a day or two his apology has spread around the world through internet film-sharing sites. Rather than turning him into a global laughing stock, the video leads to him getting a lucrative job at the United Nations as the Chief Apologist in the UNOAR – United Nations Office of Apology and Reconciliation. At a time when the world has lots to be sorry about the UN has adopted the teachings of a Professor Schenke who ironically and unapologetically stole his theory of ‘Penitential Engagement’ from a graduate student. In short Schenke’s theory says that a good apology reduces the cost of compensation and so makes excellent economic sense. All of a sudden, saying sorry is the dish of the day.
Basset’s perfect for the job. He oozes empathy and has a conveniently complex family history that sets him up to apologise for everything from the slave trade to aborigine persecution on his mother’s side and hoarding Nazi funds on his (Swiss) father’s side. If only he’d not boycotted South African apples when he was a student (and so become part of ‘the struggle’) he could have apologised for Apartheid too. Soon he’s buzzing around the world as the highest paid apologist in the business.
The plot is cheesier than the cheese board at a top cheese restaurant and the believability factor ranges all the way from ‘no way’ across to ‘come off it’ but in spite of that it’s really very amusing. It would make a very good film that would probably sell very well. Basset is so full of self-loathing and repentance that you can just about forgive all the wallowing in childhood ‘issues’. Rayner paints us a picture of a thoroughly unpleasant man and then chips away at our revulsion until we’re all starting to root for Basset as some kind of avenging angel of the repentance movement. Whilst we can all see that sooner or later something just has to go badly wrong and the wheels have to fall off the apology bandwagon, it’s like watching a car crash that you know you can’t prevent – and seeing it in slow motion. One voice in your head is crying out “No Marc Basset, put down your drink and step away from the horny blonde waitresses” whilst the other voice is whispering “What the heck, do what you like and just say sorry afterwards”.
In the real world Jay Rayner is a restaurant critic so the ‘foodie’ sections of the book are predictably well written and unctuous in their descriptions of dishes and flavour combinations. An epilogue tells us that many of the dishes are real and tells us where he ate them and he seems to be at his happiest when writing about chocolate in all its forms and varieties. I have worked with chocolate and I personally just don’t find it very exciting but Rayner paints orgasmic descriptions of cocoa contents and the balance of flavours that will appeal to many. In places I’d have to say that he does go on a bit and at 434 pages long it could benefit from a bit of judicious editing. However on balance he’s not got too much to apologise for.
The Apologist was published in 2004 and was probably just a bit ahead of itself. If I’d read it then I’m sure my thoughts would have been on some of the big international apologies of the time – the Truth and Reconciliation hearings of South Africa and Pope JP2 finally saying “Oops, sorry for not doing anything to stop the Holocaust” both spring to mind. I remember Tony Blair attempting to ‘apologise’ for the slave trade and just looking a bit stupid because it was hard to see how he could really take personal responsibility for something of that type. But in today’s economic turmoil I think this book is even more thought-provoking than when it first hit the shelves. How often have you listened to a politician or a businessman squirming in a TV or radio interview as he or she tries desperately to give the impression of being sorry without actually saying so and most definitely without taking any legally-binding responsibility? The Apologist is probably more fitting now than it was six years ago. That’s not something that happens very often.
The day I finished reading this I was late leaving for work because I’d stayed in bed a bit too long polishing off the final chapters of The Apologist. As I drove along the M56 John Humphreys was interrogating a cabinet minister about her second home allowances and her husband’s mucky-movie-misdemeanour (this is going back a few years but Brits may recognise the case) “But I’ve apologised, I’ve said I’m sorry and I’ve paid back the money” she pleaded. But the problem was she just didn’t sound like she meant it. It seems that “Sorry” is a very easy thing to say but repentance is very hard to fake. Maybe someone should send her a copy of Rayner’s book – or send her on a ‘Penitential Engagement’ training course
Rayner’s protagonist Marc Basset is a savage restaurant critic of the type that seems common in most major newspapers. In the age of the celebrity chef there’s a good trade in celebrity critics and Basset is one such critic. This is the man who described one meal as likely to “taste better coming back up than it did going down” and the staff of a fish restaurant where everyone wore waders and cagoules as “dressed for an exceptionally safe sex party”. After dipping his pen (or keyboard) in a touch more vitriol than normal, he cranks out an excoriating review of a top restaurant only to find that the restaurateur has taken his criticism rather too personally and has climbed into his own oven and roasted himself with a copy of Basset’s review taped to the over door. There’s not too much risk of misinterpreting such a gesture.
Basset is forced to examine himself and his writing and realises that he’s really not a very nice person and never has been. Even to the people he loves, he can be a bit of a bastard. Writing about one bad restaurant he proclaims that if he wanted food that bad he could stay at home and let his girlfriend cook for him. We’d be right in thinking this guy doesn’t deserve a girlfriend at all, let alone one who’d cook for him.
Facing up to his own snobby nastiness Basset decides it’s time to do the honourable thing and heads off to the restaurant to apologise to the chef’s wife. When it all goes much better than could have been expected, he discovers that ‘sorry’ really is a powerful word. The wife feels better (cue the mother introducing Basset to her small child who recognises the name and asks “Mummy, what’s a wanker?”) and less angry at him and makes him feel like less of a rotter. After years of being hooked on food and venomous criticism, Basset has found a new and dangerous addiction – repentance.
Not since Earl Hickey of Channel 4’s series ‘My Name is Earl’ set out to apologise and make amends to hundreds of people he’d lied to, stolen from or otherwise abused, has a fictional character taken such delight in wallowing in his past sins and asking for forgiveness. Basset is soon buzzing around apologising to all and sundry for all manner of misdemeanours. There’s the fat girl he kissed and fondled, the best friend from college days whom he set up to walk in on his girlfriend with another man, the colleague he made sick with bad fish in order to steal his job and many more victims. Basset’s eager to make amends to them all. He also vows to only write reviews that emphasise the good in the restaurants he visits which inevitably leads him to lose his job.
Just when it seems that Basset has blown his life and his career in pursuit of apology, he hits the big time with an apology to the girl who unburdened him of his student virginity. She insists on filming him and within a day or two his apology has spread around the world through internet film-sharing sites. Rather than turning him into a global laughing stock, the video leads to him getting a lucrative job at the United Nations as the Chief Apologist in the UNOAR – United Nations Office of Apology and Reconciliation. At a time when the world has lots to be sorry about the UN has adopted the teachings of a Professor Schenke who ironically and unapologetically stole his theory of ‘Penitential Engagement’ from a graduate student. In short Schenke’s theory says that a good apology reduces the cost of compensation and so makes excellent economic sense. All of a sudden, saying sorry is the dish of the day.
Basset’s perfect for the job. He oozes empathy and has a conveniently complex family history that sets him up to apologise for everything from the slave trade to aborigine persecution on his mother’s side and hoarding Nazi funds on his (Swiss) father’s side. If only he’d not boycotted South African apples when he was a student (and so become part of ‘the struggle’) he could have apologised for Apartheid too. Soon he’s buzzing around the world as the highest paid apologist in the business.
The plot is cheesier than the cheese board at a top cheese restaurant and the believability factor ranges all the way from ‘no way’ across to ‘come off it’ but in spite of that it’s really very amusing. It would make a very good film that would probably sell very well. Basset is so full of self-loathing and repentance that you can just about forgive all the wallowing in childhood ‘issues’. Rayner paints us a picture of a thoroughly unpleasant man and then chips away at our revulsion until we’re all starting to root for Basset as some kind of avenging angel of the repentance movement. Whilst we can all see that sooner or later something just has to go badly wrong and the wheels have to fall off the apology bandwagon, it’s like watching a car crash that you know you can’t prevent – and seeing it in slow motion. One voice in your head is crying out “No Marc Basset, put down your drink and step away from the horny blonde waitresses” whilst the other voice is whispering “What the heck, do what you like and just say sorry afterwards”.
In the real world Jay Rayner is a restaurant critic so the ‘foodie’ sections of the book are predictably well written and unctuous in their descriptions of dishes and flavour combinations. An epilogue tells us that many of the dishes are real and tells us where he ate them and he seems to be at his happiest when writing about chocolate in all its forms and varieties. I have worked with chocolate and I personally just don’t find it very exciting but Rayner paints orgasmic descriptions of cocoa contents and the balance of flavours that will appeal to many. In places I’d have to say that he does go on a bit and at 434 pages long it could benefit from a bit of judicious editing. However on balance he’s not got too much to apologise for.
The Apologist was published in 2004 and was probably just a bit ahead of itself. If I’d read it then I’m sure my thoughts would have been on some of the big international apologies of the time – the Truth and Reconciliation hearings of South Africa and Pope JP2 finally saying “Oops, sorry for not doing anything to stop the Holocaust” both spring to mind. I remember Tony Blair attempting to ‘apologise’ for the slave trade and just looking a bit stupid because it was hard to see how he could really take personal responsibility for something of that type. But in today’s economic turmoil I think this book is even more thought-provoking than when it first hit the shelves. How often have you listened to a politician or a businessman squirming in a TV or radio interview as he or she tries desperately to give the impression of being sorry without actually saying so and most definitely without taking any legally-binding responsibility? The Apologist is probably more fitting now than it was six years ago. That’s not something that happens very often.
The day I finished reading this I was late leaving for work because I’d stayed in bed a bit too long polishing off the final chapters of The Apologist. As I drove along the M56 John Humphreys was interrogating a cabinet minister about her second home allowances and her husband’s mucky-movie-misdemeanour (this is going back a few years but Brits may recognise the case) “But I’ve apologised, I’ve said I’m sorry and I’ve paid back the money” she pleaded. But the problem was she just didn’t sound like she meant it. It seems that “Sorry” is a very easy thing to say but repentance is very hard to fake. Maybe someone should send her a copy of Rayner’s book – or send her on a ‘Penitential Engagement’ training course
May 28, 2007
"Eating Crow" is an amusing, wry, clever little novel about a restaurant critic who is famous for his scathing reviews. Through a series of events the critic becomes the UN's Chief Apologist. The book is full of fabulous food descriptions-- a little bit of food porn for your inner foodie!
September 9, 2008
this is a strangely funny book that lightly stakes a claim to the revenge/apology paradigm that is currently so popular. it's not like a gag a minute or anything, it's just so absurd from time to time you look up and think " this is ridiculous!". it still manages to have pathos though. it's about a restaurant critic who writes bad reviews for fun and profit until one of his reviews is cited as the primary reason a local restaurant owner commits suicide. when he apologizes to the widow he finds it easy and invigorating. he then sets out to apologize to everyone he's ever wronged and eventually becomes the head apologist for the UN. the book reads pretty light but the actual main character is a good study, especially in the last chapter and last page where i feel he is revealed. the author is also an actual food critic and the descriptions of food are unrivaled. Mmm
January 25, 2012
Well, it’s about apologizing. It’s about the tedium of apologizing. Or, at least, it’s about hearing about the tedium of trying to craft the perfect apology—the one that actually works, the one that convinces the apologizee that you’re genuine, and sincere, and totally into believing that you deserve to be forgiven. Strange. For a story about apologies, it rarely mentions forgiveness.
If you want, you can read more about what I thought (and I'm not apologizing for any of it!): http://www.uncustomarybookreview.com/...
If you want, you can read more about what I thought (and I'm not apologizing for any of it!): http://www.uncustomarybookreview.com/...
November 24, 2007
UGH. The characters are likable, but the whole concept/idea of the book revolving around an english guy becoming the national apologizer is horrible. It started out pretty well, and went down hill when his video taped sorry started circulating. I do NOT recommend this book to anyone.
October 7, 2009
This book was stupid. I must have been still-drunk when I read that this was clever and funny. Ahh well, at least it was a pretty quick read.
November 11, 2024
A novel mimics the present!
Some books are reputed to be comic and hardly raise a smile, but this one is genuinely funny at times in a dark sardonic way. Jay Rayner doesn't hold back and he makes you gasp with laughter whilst laying bare quite a few home truths.
The only trouble is, when reading this book in 2024 dealing with satire, there is a horrible tendency for the satire to suddenly, ludicrously be played out in real life. This is a totally more insane world than when the book was written in 2004. The idiotic idea of apologies and reparations for all sorts of things, was seriously discussed by our joke of a Prime Minister, Keir Starmer with other Commonwealth leaders very recently (October 2024). How soon before this groveller is apologising or kneeling about everywhere? In fact I wouldn't be surprised if there soon really was a UN office for Apologies and Reconciliation. The UN has been corrupted so thoroughly throughout its whole structure. Jay Rayner writes so convincingly I really think some of the craziest things in the book may already have happened, with lavish amounts of taxpayer cash poured into them.
However, I did find that the story dragged occasionally and lost momentum as it all got a bit too earnest, so it would have been better if Rayner had picked up the pace at times and perhaps been even more vicious and sardonic. There are also huge omissions and missed opportunities, how about the hypocrisy of African states expecting an apology from Europeans when many of them collaborated enthusiastically with slavers, supplying them with live fellow Africans? Then there is the embarrassing fact that African states were taking slaves from each others tribes long before white men ever set foot in Africa. That would have been ripe material for satire. Then there are the Barbary Pirates who enslaved white people, and so on... Slavery is always wrong no matter what race the victims are.
Also what do we do about the Romans invading Britain and the Viking invasions? Does everyone in the world deserve an apology? It goes on and on and on. However this is a novel and not a history or a political exploration. There is perhaps the consideration that Rayner didn't want to be lynched by the outrage of the race-baiters who are in the ascendant at present.
Overall though, it is an entertaining read.
At times I loved this story of the hapless Marc Basset, restaurant critic and apologist, as for the real life events which mimic it, not so much.
Some books are reputed to be comic and hardly raise a smile, but this one is genuinely funny at times in a dark sardonic way. Jay Rayner doesn't hold back and he makes you gasp with laughter whilst laying bare quite a few home truths.
The only trouble is, when reading this book in 2024 dealing with satire, there is a horrible tendency for the satire to suddenly, ludicrously be played out in real life. This is a totally more insane world than when the book was written in 2004. The idiotic idea of apologies and reparations for all sorts of things, was seriously discussed by our joke of a Prime Minister, Keir Starmer with other Commonwealth leaders very recently (October 2024). How soon before this groveller is apologising or kneeling about everywhere? In fact I wouldn't be surprised if there soon really was a UN office for Apologies and Reconciliation. The UN has been corrupted so thoroughly throughout its whole structure. Jay Rayner writes so convincingly I really think some of the craziest things in the book may already have happened, with lavish amounts of taxpayer cash poured into them.
However, I did find that the story dragged occasionally and lost momentum as it all got a bit too earnest, so it would have been better if Rayner had picked up the pace at times and perhaps been even more vicious and sardonic. There are also huge omissions and missed opportunities, how about the hypocrisy of African states expecting an apology from Europeans when many of them collaborated enthusiastically with slavers, supplying them with live fellow Africans? Then there is the embarrassing fact that African states were taking slaves from each others tribes long before white men ever set foot in Africa. That would have been ripe material for satire. Then there are the Barbary Pirates who enslaved white people, and so on... Slavery is always wrong no matter what race the victims are.
Also what do we do about the Romans invading Britain and the Viking invasions? Does everyone in the world deserve an apology? It goes on and on and on. However this is a novel and not a history or a political exploration. There is perhaps the consideration that Rayner didn't want to be lynched by the outrage of the race-baiters who are in the ascendant at present.
Overall though, it is an entertaining read.
At times I loved this story of the hapless Marc Basset, restaurant critic and apologist, as for the real life events which mimic it, not so much.
May 12, 2022
The beginning is lovely - hilarious mean restaurant reviews and really sweet memories of conversations with the protagonist's dad. Then there's a whole lot of slop involving fake statistics and politics which is just a boring as real statistics and politics along with plenty of one dimensional female characters and many varieties of humiliations. I was on the verge of giving up plenty of times but didn't have my next novel ready. Lucky for me, I kept on because the author managed to pull if off at the end - surprisingly exciting with a satisfying epilogue!
You may not be bored with politics or boring women or fake suppositions about the act of apology, so you may not mind the middle - but if you are like me, just keep going it does improve!
You may not be bored with politics or boring women or fake suppositions about the act of apology, so you may not mind the middle - but if you are like me, just keep going it does improve!
August 28, 2025
Sparse prose that elegantly reveals deep insights into the psyche of a young couple as they move through a time of transition, trying to find their place in a foreign country separated from family and friends. I agree with what one reviewer said: The Anthropologists is mesmerizing; I felt I read it in a single breath. For reasons I can’t quite put together, this book left me feeling quite sad and empty, as if I came to inhabit the characters, though my life shares little in common with theirs. I guess that’s quite a testament to the skill and sensitivity of the author.
April 26, 2023
A fun light read
I enjoyed this but would have appreciated it more had I read it when it first came out I think. As the author says in the afterword, it anticipates the public political apology as a way of life - something we’re used to now but it was intended as satire then.
It’s still readable and I don’t think Jay Rayner has an unengaging sentence in him - but it would have been better timed if I’d read it when it still had a little more bite.
I enjoyed this but would have appreciated it more had I read it when it first came out I think. As the author says in the afterword, it anticipates the public political apology as a way of life - something we’re used to now but it was intended as satire then.
It’s still readable and I don’t think Jay Rayner has an unengaging sentence in him - but it would have been better timed if I’d read it when it still had a little more bite.
November 25, 2017
7 CD version read by the author. ISBN 9781471282669. Bonus points for having being written in 2004. If it was 10 years later Rayner would appear to have been jumping on the "apologist"bandwagon. Nice satire and I assume he is in part laughing at at the world of food critics and professional 3rd party negotiators. The book could have been 25% shorter but enjoyed it.
January 22, 2018
The premise of this book is a really good one, and given the published date - almost prophetic. I feel it’s main message is even more powerful as time goes on, but it’s best part is its message - not the story arc. What I loved at the start, I did not like as much by the end. 3.5 stars!
February 2, 2024
Enjoyable satire that starts well but fades...
December 4, 2025
I love cooking and memoirs and this was a delightful read
September 8, 2013
It was once said that love means never having to say you’re sorry—a phrase that many a chastened boyfriend or husband can tell you is a load of nonsense. If we don’t apologize to our loved ones, but stammer out apologies for stepping on a stranger’s toe, then what does that say about us as human beings?
“Eating Crow” explores the nature of apologia through the fictional entity of one Marc Basset, an Englishman and culinary critic whose scathing reviews come to an abrupt end when he learns that one of his truly savage evaluations has been found taped to an oven where a chef has immolated himself.
The reader can tell right from the start that Marc’s contrition has more than a little self interest in it, that he really ought not to apologize for the death of a man of such feeble character that he allows criticism to kill him. (As we’d say in New York, “man up, dude”.) Doing anything these days means that sooner or later somebody is going to take a potshot at you. No matter how many people laud you for your achievements, there’s always one smartarse in the crowd who insists that the Emperor is naked.
But Marc’s journey from food critic to Chief Apologist for the U.N. to his inevitable downfall is truly a delightful read, full of abrupt bends and loops in the road. We know that this won’t end well; there’s only so much apologizing anyone can do before somebody sneers that it’s not enough, that mere words won’t suffice. That still doesn’t detract from the refreshing tale of Marc’s (usually) sincere attempt to offer regrets on the parts of various nations. Intertwining the personal and the national, obscurity and fame, sexual deprivation and sexual raunchiness and, yes, a deep love of food that has everything and nothing to do with eating one's words, “Eating Crow” examines a subject well worth pondering. It’s an incisive and funny romp. The author has nothing for which to apologize.
“Eating Crow” explores the nature of apologia through the fictional entity of one Marc Basset, an Englishman and culinary critic whose scathing reviews come to an abrupt end when he learns that one of his truly savage evaluations has been found taped to an oven where a chef has immolated himself.
The reader can tell right from the start that Marc’s contrition has more than a little self interest in it, that he really ought not to apologize for the death of a man of such feeble character that he allows criticism to kill him. (As we’d say in New York, “man up, dude”.) Doing anything these days means that sooner or later somebody is going to take a potshot at you. No matter how many people laud you for your achievements, there’s always one smartarse in the crowd who insists that the Emperor is naked.
But Marc’s journey from food critic to Chief Apologist for the U.N. to his inevitable downfall is truly a delightful read, full of abrupt bends and loops in the road. We know that this won’t end well; there’s only so much apologizing anyone can do before somebody sneers that it’s not enough, that mere words won’t suffice. That still doesn’t detract from the refreshing tale of Marc’s (usually) sincere attempt to offer regrets on the parts of various nations. Intertwining the personal and the national, obscurity and fame, sexual deprivation and sexual raunchiness and, yes, a deep love of food that has everything and nothing to do with eating one's words, “Eating Crow” examines a subject well worth pondering. It’s an incisive and funny romp. The author has nothing for which to apologize.
January 21, 2015
First things first: the descriptions of food and cooking in Jay Rayner’s The Apologist are often exquisite and always mouth-watering, which is what one might expect from a restaurant critic. But it’s not a novel about food, despite the protagonist being (surprise!) a restaurant critic; in fact it’s intended as a satire on the modern apology: its vacuity, its point^lessness and the lack of any real heart behind it.
As a subject, this is ripe for satire: we live in an age when people in the public eye say what they think, realise they’re not supposed to think that and then attempt to retract it while apologising for any offence caused. Rayner’s book, while well-intentioned (and apparently somewhat prophetic given it was written a decade ago), sadly doesn’t quite skewer it, landing it somewhere between romcom and ‘personal journey’ rather than the biting satire it is aiming for. Marc Basset, our critic turned professional apologist, ends up apologising for things on a professional level, but while his reasons for apologising are often purposefully contrived (eg a distant relation involved in the slave trade leads to a full apology for slavery) the emptiness of the gesture seems to get lost. Similarly, as apologising becomes a commercial enterprise, the opportunity for a real mark to be made is lost.
That said, it’s an easy, entertaining read and it’s interesting to see Rayner hit upon the idea of viral videos some years before they came to be the norm. I might have to go back to his description of an entire meal of chocolate rather than his more serious points however…
As a subject, this is ripe for satire: we live in an age when people in the public eye say what they think, realise they’re not supposed to think that and then attempt to retract it while apologising for any offence caused. Rayner’s book, while well-intentioned (and apparently somewhat prophetic given it was written a decade ago), sadly doesn’t quite skewer it, landing it somewhere between romcom and ‘personal journey’ rather than the biting satire it is aiming for. Marc Basset, our critic turned professional apologist, ends up apologising for things on a professional level, but while his reasons for apologising are often purposefully contrived (eg a distant relation involved in the slave trade leads to a full apology for slavery) the emptiness of the gesture seems to get lost. Similarly, as apologising becomes a commercial enterprise, the opportunity for a real mark to be made is lost.
That said, it’s an easy, entertaining read and it’s interesting to see Rayner hit upon the idea of viral videos some years before they came to be the norm. I might have to go back to his description of an entire meal of chocolate rather than his more serious points however…
January 11, 2010
THE APOLOGIST by Jay Rayner
Jay Rayner was born in the UK in the mid 1960s and became a journalist. During his writing career he has also been a restaurant critic which seems to have stood him in good stead with this book.
The Apologist is Marc Basset, a very well known food critic, renowned for his reviews which pull no punches and make him very hard to like! He adores chocolate, is a great cook and lives with the very patient and understanding Lynne, which he considers a minor miracle: that anyone would want to live him. A classic case of low self esteem? This tenuous control he has over his world compleetely unravels when a chefhe has reviewed most unfavourably kills himself as a reult. Marc does feel responsible and he decides to apologise to teh widow. He has never apologised for anything in his life before. The feel good factor he gets from it ultimately takes on a life on its own, until he finds himself apologising for no end of things that apologies are needed for or perceived to be needed for. This is political satire at its best, very tongue in cheek, and very relevant to the world we currently live in, with all it religious and cultural intolerances, political correctness, greivances against colonial powers going back hundres of years, the concept of instant fame and celebrity, how easy it is to lose one's sense of self. Tightly written and well controlled, this is a highly entertaining and thoughtful book, its main character being not entirely likable, but who we do come to feel sympathy and empathy for.
Jay Rayner was born in the UK in the mid 1960s and became a journalist. During his writing career he has also been a restaurant critic which seems to have stood him in good stead with this book.
The Apologist is Marc Basset, a very well known food critic, renowned for his reviews which pull no punches and make him very hard to like! He adores chocolate, is a great cook and lives with the very patient and understanding Lynne, which he considers a minor miracle: that anyone would want to live him. A classic case of low self esteem? This tenuous control he has over his world compleetely unravels when a chefhe has reviewed most unfavourably kills himself as a reult. Marc does feel responsible and he decides to apologise to teh widow. He has never apologised for anything in his life before. The feel good factor he gets from it ultimately takes on a life on its own, until he finds himself apologising for no end of things that apologies are needed for or perceived to be needed for. This is political satire at its best, very tongue in cheek, and very relevant to the world we currently live in, with all it religious and cultural intolerances, political correctness, greivances against colonial powers going back hundres of years, the concept of instant fame and celebrity, how easy it is to lose one's sense of self. Tightly written and well controlled, this is a highly entertaining and thoughtful book, its main character being not entirely likable, but who we do come to feel sympathy and empathy for.
February 5, 2015
First published in 2004, food writer Rayner's (he's the one who sometimes appears on Masterchef looking like a buccaneer gone to seed) novel about a bloated critic whose life takes a very unexpected turn is a funny but quite painfully dragged out satire on the role public apologies play in politics and diplomacy.
Marc Basset's particularly vicious review of a restaurant prompts the head chef to bake himself to death in his own bread oven, leading the critic into a series of apologies that then, in not quite believable but nicely entertaining fashion, take him to a high-ranking position as chief apologiser for all the world's ills - both recent or historical.
It's clever stuff, but does go on and on.
It starts well and ends well, and there's an interesting afterword in which Rayner discusses how the novel coincided with major politicians' fascination with saying sorry for anything and everything but outstays it's welcome by a good 150 or so pages in the middle.
While it's an enjoyable read, too much of the book is wasted on Basset's character detailing, in excessive detail, what he's eating, and describing foolish or unpleasant things he did when he was a student.
Marc Basset's particularly vicious review of a restaurant prompts the head chef to bake himself to death in his own bread oven, leading the critic into a series of apologies that then, in not quite believable but nicely entertaining fashion, take him to a high-ranking position as chief apologiser for all the world's ills - both recent or historical.
It's clever stuff, but does go on and on.
It starts well and ends well, and there's an interesting afterword in which Rayner discusses how the novel coincided with major politicians' fascination with saying sorry for anything and everything but outstays it's welcome by a good 150 or so pages in the middle.
While it's an enjoyable read, too much of the book is wasted on Basset's character detailing, in excessive detail, what he's eating, and describing foolish or unpleasant things he did when he was a student.
December 6, 2014
Written in 2004 Rayner managed to predict a political movement as well as a field of academic study. In his afterword for the 10th anniversary ebook edition Rayner explains how this came about as, to his surprise, life started to reflect fiction.
I came to this novel without knowing anything of its history. It was a reading group selection and in its early pages I thought it was going to be lad-lit in the style of Nick Hornby with a foodie angle. However, while it started this way it soon took a sharp turn and became a witty political satire.
I certainly found it interesting, quite funny in places as well as thought-provoking as a good satire should be. For those who did read it in our reading group it was well received and prompted a couple of members who had given up early into it to say they'll probably return to it after hearing our glowing reviews.
On a side note I do feel the Kindle estimated page count was out as it seemed longer than stated in terms of my reading time. The older paperback page counts of about 450 pages seemed more apt.
I came to this novel without knowing anything of its history. It was a reading group selection and in its early pages I thought it was going to be lad-lit in the style of Nick Hornby with a foodie angle. However, while it started this way it soon took a sharp turn and became a witty political satire.
I certainly found it interesting, quite funny in places as well as thought-provoking as a good satire should be. For those who did read it in our reading group it was well received and prompted a couple of members who had given up early into it to say they'll probably return to it after hearing our glowing reviews.
On a side note I do feel the Kindle estimated page count was out as it seemed longer than stated in terms of my reading time. The older paperback page counts of about 450 pages seemed more apt.
February 12, 2010
Satirical book with only one real joke that cannot make itself last the 430 pages of the book.
Marc is a restaurant critic. His review of a chef's restuarant results in the chef committing suicide. Marc then, in a My Name is Earl way (although this book was before), decides to be a better person by apologises.
The early parts of the book show promise, as he tracks down former lovers and anyone he has wronged.
It then takes a turn for the satirical when he get head hunted to host an orwellian office of apology, where the worlds wrongs can be righted by nations saying sorry.
This is where I lost interest and enthusiasm and the last half of the book became a real chore, to be honest. Sorry.
Marc is a restaurant critic. His review of a chef's restuarant results in the chef committing suicide. Marc then, in a My Name is Earl way (although this book was before), decides to be a better person by apologises.
The early parts of the book show promise, as he tracks down former lovers and anyone he has wronged.
It then takes a turn for the satirical when he get head hunted to host an orwellian office of apology, where the worlds wrongs can be righted by nations saying sorry.
This is where I lost interest and enthusiasm and the last half of the book became a real chore, to be honest. Sorry.
September 30, 2011
I saw this book on amoung the clearance books on Amazon and if that wasnt a big enough clue, the forward written by the author should have been. He basically apologizes to the purchaser of the book.
The premise of the book is good and the beginning is plausible but, then it just gets ridiculous. Marc Bassett decides to apologize to those he has mistreated throughout his life after a resturantour that gets a bad review from Bassett commits suicide. But then after a video of Bassett apologizing goes viral he is given the job of "Chief Apologist for the United Nations", and that is where I gave up. I was on pg 120 of 288, and perhaps it gets better but my reading time is so precious I just can't waste it on garbage.
I love fantasy but, this was just to much to bear!!!!
The premise of the book is good and the beginning is plausible but, then it just gets ridiculous. Marc Bassett decides to apologize to those he has mistreated throughout his life after a resturantour that gets a bad review from Bassett commits suicide. But then after a video of Bassett apologizing goes viral he is given the job of "Chief Apologist for the United Nations", and that is where I gave up. I was on pg 120 of 288, and perhaps it gets better but my reading time is so precious I just can't waste it on garbage.
I love fantasy but, this was just to much to bear!!!!
December 12, 2015
Quite a fun book. Well written and an interesting idea really. Stereotypically man, caught in a rut of normal life, normal aggression, normal survival of the fittest who, almost unexpectedly, finds himself apologising to everyone. Initially he apologises for all his own misdemeanours - usually related to relationships - and then finds himself as a world expert apologising for everyone and anyone for past actions. The slave trade, wars. That's just a beginning. As one would expect, it almost has a circular feel about it. Man starts off fed up goes off, becomes famous and rich and the, well, it's not really a spoiler but we almost end up where we started. It's worth a read, I quite enjoyed it.
October 30, 2014
I actually downloaded this for my husband when it was free on kindle recently. He's a bit of a foodie, so I thought it would be right up his street, and although he wasn't so sure he gamely gave it a go. By the time he was a quarter of the way in however, he was telling me it was the best book he'd read in ages and that I had to read it.
So now I have read it, and he definitely has a point - it's a very good read. It's hardly surprising that a restaurant critic can write, and this male-confessional novel with a garnish of satire proves that admirably.
If you like Nick Hornby, give this a go.
We liked it so much, we are now on a mission to hunt down Jay Rayner's other books.
So now I have read it, and he definitely has a point - it's a very good read. It's hardly surprising that a restaurant critic can write, and this male-confessional novel with a garnish of satire proves that admirably.
If you like Nick Hornby, give this a go.
We liked it so much, we are now on a mission to hunt down Jay Rayner's other books.
February 7, 2017
This was heading for a 2 star review as it was an ok satire(with one very funny scenario if you like your humour macabre). However the afterword of the ebook suddenly made it more interesting. I hadn't realised the book was written in 2004 and predated the international apology bandwagon. It predated youtube as well ,hence the video clips by email idea which seemed quite odd.
Jay Rayner is an excellent restaurant reviewer who really loves food. If Marc Basset had a drawer full of chocolate for difficult times, I now imagine Jay having a drawer full of porky bits and I hope that vision doesn't linger.
Jay Rayner is an excellent restaurant reviewer who really loves food. If Marc Basset had a drawer full of chocolate for difficult times, I now imagine Jay having a drawer full of porky bits and I hope that vision doesn't linger.
May 2, 2008
The careful preparation and study done before one must begin the actual cooking of the crow is an art form not to be undone by one mans poor cooking skills. Not only are these recipes tasteless, but the bird in question (crow) is an endangered species and can therefore not be a viable food source to begin with. Shame on you Jay Rayner, I hope you received the gout from eating this poorly prepared meal.
However, I would like to commend you for your innovative use of a crucifix for a spit roast in order to steam the feathers off the poor fowl.
However, I would like to commend you for your innovative use of a crucifix for a spit roast in order to steam the feathers off the poor fowl.
September 5, 2011
It's such a wonderfully silly concept - a snarky restaurant reviewer apologizes to the widow of a chef who committed suicide after a negative review. He feels so good afterwards that he finds other people from his past to apologize to. This whole exercise winds up getting him tapped to become the Chief Apologist for the UN - traveling around the world in a private jet to apologize for slavery, genocide and other war crimes. As I said, silly, but well written with interludes of food tales - he never quite gets away from that part of his background. Fluffy fun.
August 1, 2012
Great read. The preface itself is funny and satirical. The wonderful descriptions of the restaurants and dishes the protagonist critiques, the way he goes on to track down his former lovers and his heartwarming apologies and being recruited by UN making things adventurous. Over all it is a good read and does stand out with his humorous, satirical and somewhat serious nature but one will slowly start to lose their interest or maybe even dissatisfied due to the way the plot doesn't go smoothly and sometimes the story runs off its course. I'd give it a 4/5. Worth a read!
May 23, 2011
A book given to me by a friend.. I waited too long to read it. If I had known it was so good I would have read it sooner!
A restaurant critic who writes a review that makes the chef commit suicide. The critic then feels compelled to apologize.. He then becomes the Chief Apologist. Apologizing for companies and countries for their past faults. A great idea. A wonderful concept. I really enjoyed this book.
A restaurant critic who writes a review that makes the chef commit suicide. The critic then feels compelled to apologize.. He then becomes the Chief Apologist. Apologizing for companies and countries for their past faults. A great idea. A wonderful concept. I really enjoyed this book.
October 9, 2014
Great story and well written. JR draws a good story and the foodie elements were appropriate to the story.
Quite plausible and amusing scenarios but... Fell flat at the end. The last scenario felt rushed and the outcome was somewhat unsatisfactory.
Sorry jay Rayner, I love your wit and panache but on this occasion it didn't quite work for me.
A bit like the pomegranates on one of the dishes in masterchef!!!
Quite plausible and amusing scenarios but... Fell flat at the end. The last scenario felt rushed and the outcome was somewhat unsatisfactory.
Sorry jay Rayner, I love your wit and panache but on this occasion it didn't quite work for me.
A bit like the pomegranates on one of the dishes in masterchef!!!
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