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Eating crow

Jay Rayner

2004292 pagesabout 4–7 hours
2004
first published
  • 2004Simon & Schuster · 292 pages · ENGISBN 9780743250597
  • 2005Simon & Schuster · 304 pages · ENGISBN 9780743250610

When a despondent chef kills himself by climbing into a 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 gourmand is known for his poison pen, his editor fires him. In Bassett'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 finds the woman to whom he lost his virginity in college so that he can apologize for boasting about it to his pals later.

How do you feel?