I Regret Almost Everything: Audiobook Review of the Restaurateur's Life Story
This memoir from the British-born hospitality figure, the creator behind iconic New York restaurants including The Odeon and Balthazar, opens with a dark moment as he describes a suicide attempt at the summer house in Martha’s Vineyard in 2018. Next, we travel back to 20 months earlier, when on a Saturday morning, he accompanied his youngest children to the National Gallery in London. While observing a painting of Jesus betrayed by Judas, McNally noticed my body showing symptoms of failing him: a unusual metallic tingling tingled in his fingertips.” This marked the start of a stroke that would leave him with speech difficulties and paralysis on one side of his body.
The Memoir Titled I Regret Almost Everything sees the author, now 74, thinking back on his physical condition as well as his lengthy career, transitioning from porter at the Hilton hotel in London to young performer – aged 16, he portrayed the lead in a production of The Winslow Boy – to dining room helper at the New York restaurant One Fifth, where he rose to the position of maître d’.
The actor Richard E Grant gives voice to his memoir in a subtle but heartfelt performance that conveys the author’s sadness over his old self and his deeper contemplation. As the title makes clear, he feels remorse: notably splitting from his wives, not being fully present to his older kids and calling out James Corden for disrespectful behavior in his dining venue. Yet he experiences happiness in cinema, stage performances and in thoughts of gathering with employees at the Odeon when service ended as they drank beer and shared the night’s proceeds. Reflecting on that time, McNally notes: “Nothing since has ever compared to that feeling.”
Released by the audio publisher, 10 hours and 46 minutes
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Jane McDowell narrates Tremain’s story of growing up taking place in the fifties. This tracks the experiences of Marianne, who, following a short romance in her teens, enrolls in a typing school in London where she keeps lamenting for the boyfriend who departed.
