Customer Reviews
Day of Attonement - By: Lee the Book Lover, 07 Jun 2005 
This book is one of the funniest books i have read, & I have read a lot of funny books. Day of attonement charts the life & times of two jewish boys in North West London & the business they set up from its humble beginings selling a contraption to make better chicken soup to a multi-national hotel & resteraunt empire & the lifes of the two principal chariters along that journey.
Day of Atonement is a very very funny book & i recomend it as an adition to everyones bookshelf.
A bizarre, and rather dark tale of Jews and chicken soup. - By: , 13 Feb 1999 
The cover of the book, simulating a can of Campbell's chicken soup, gives one a clear indication ofclear indication of its nature - tinny, thin in substance, & containing lots of naty things which you wish never to discover. Although the book is described described as comic, my advice is to enjoy the cover, as this is the only midly amusing thing which it has to offer.The story is based around the life of two Jewish businessmen, & follows their progress from selling chicken soup (hence the cover, I presume...), to the breakthrough of their company on the international market. However, despite its initial unconventional plot, the novel follows the usual cliches - births, marriages, deaths, & ends with the compulsory tragedy.In alll fairness, it is not /that/ badly written, until there is any attempt at wit. It is obvious that Rayner has problems with humour - his jokes are either as ancient as the Jewish faith itself, or are exhausted to he point when you are tempted to rip out the remaining pages out of pure frustration. It may also help to falll into the target audience of the book - middle-aged male Jews, involved in the world of business, & admittantly, I falll into none of these categories.Still, if you must buy this book, buy it for the chicken soup recipe at the end.
