Sideways : A Novel

Rating:
Summary: puschi
Review: A fun easy read. A bit pretentious at times with all the wine ya-ya. The guys are such "hens" with their alternate fits of pouting. A great escape for a couple of nights reading. Not much work except for the occasional "hard" word to look up; thus enhancing it's credibilty some. My favorite new word to roll off my tongue "pusillanimous".

Rating:
Summary: Humorous
Review: A very funny book about two guys, one (the narrator) who can't seem to get over his ex-wife, and the other who can't seem to come to terms with the fact that he's going to get married. Together, they spend a week in the Santa Ynez wine country, Miles (the narrator) reflecting on his life, and Jack (the groom-to-be) wanting desperately to get laid. There's more comedy in these sadsack souls' misadventures than there is angst and it left me teary-eyed at the end. Reads very fast, and there's a lot of stuff about wine that I didn't know about. But when I was done I wanted to drink a bottle of Pinot Noir.

Rating:
Summary: Uproarious, brilliant treatise on men
Review: I saw the film first, then read the novel. I was surprised at how close they were. The novel has so many funny scenes, but there's a poetry of language that I deeply admired. As a woman, I didn't think I would like it, but I found myself gaining an insight into the -- troubling as it may be -- male psyche. The wine background was interesting and novel and I thought it was a clever way to get inside the heads of the characters. There's a wonderful arc to the whole thing, an almost Odyssean journey, a comic Divine Comedy if you will. It's very difficult to pull off a comic novel -- few do it -- but Rex Pickett has written an enduring masterpiece that like Nick Hornby and Evelyn Waugh will be read for years to come.

Rating:
Summary: Wryly Funny Account of Wine Trip Deepens the Movie Version
Review: I was intrigued enough by Alexander Payne's movie version to read the Rex Pickett book upon which it is based. It's refreshing to know that the book and movie, while different on key plot points, are consistent in the penetrating examination of male bonding, unexpected romance and personal salvation. Like the film, the book follows Miles and Jack as two old college buddies, who travel through the Santa Ynez Valley vineyards and tasting rooms in a last hurrah victory lap before Jack ties the knot. But the book does not portray Miles as the sad sack embodied by Paul Giamatti in the movie. Rather, he is described as someone more successful in both the writing and the looks department. And Jack is not the voiceover has-been played by Thomas Haden Church, but surprisingly, a far more successful actor with a movie career thriving enough to keep the buddies awash in high-end wine and gourmet dinners. That's because the novel has 354 pages to capture the subtleties of these characters versus the two hours of the movie. The drilldown reaps rewards for the reader, especially in Pickett's detailed descriptions of Miles' oenophilia and overall depression with his career and long-ago-ended marriage.

The background behind the two women who become entangled in their lives is also much more fleshed out in the book. Maya remains the wine-loving hostess who catches Miles' eye, and Terra is a gorgeous, sexually voracious young wine-pourer. For whatever reason, Terra is renamed Stephanie in the film and becomes more mature with a daughter. The intersections of these characters work basically the same way in the book as they do on film but with more subtle reflection in the literary form. This is probably the primary reason to read the book after viewing the movie. The two endings are very different with the novel injecting a disheartening plot twist involving the affections of Maya. In my opinion, the ambiguity of the film's ending adds to the story's poignancy. But ultimately both the book and the film leave Miles and Jack in about the same place of partial revelation. The book is quite a worthwhile read, as Pickett passionately captures the joys of wine and seems equally enthusiastic when it comes to his characters' rants on love, friendship and alcohol dependency. If you love the movie, read the book to fill in some wryly funny, often entertaining context.

Rating:
Summary: A Rare Instance...
Review: In which a book and the subesquent movie are both excellent. It seems logical that most of the time the book is better than the movie. Books are simply more discriptive and there is only so much you can put into a two hour flick. But in this case I would recommend both.

Back in December I went to see the movie and about three quarters thru it the projector went out. So I had no idea how it ended. A few days later I found myself enthralled with the book at my local bookstore. I love this book so much because the characters seem so real to me. Although, you the person reading this book don't know me personally, I can really identify with the Miles character in the book. And I've had friends that remind me of Jack. I'm not a big wine guy, but I sure learned a lot by reading this book.

If you're looking for a fiction book with great characters, a great story and a lot of humor, check Sideways out... And then see the movie ;-)

Rating:
Summary: Just like a fine wine ...
Review: Like most people I saw the movie, then went back and read the book. I loved the movie, but in some ways the book is better. Miles, the main character in the movie, is more lovable in the book. And he's funnier!! In the movie he comes across as a bit of pretentious snob, but in the book his passion for wine is totally believable. Jack, the other main character in the book, is a hoot in the movie, but I find he has more going on in the book. The book is a real complement to the movie, which owes a great deal to the book.

Rating:
Summary: hilarious (but with feeling)
Review: Pickett's debut novel brilliantly combines comedy and pathos, his main characters oscillating between the hilarious and the introspective. Miles, the narrator, and his best friend, Jack, are in for a week of unbridled hedonism; it will be Jack's last, as he is to be married at the end of the week. Miles and Jack's antics are consistently hilarious, with well-written dialogue (the back cover tells us that the author is a screen writer) that is often laugh-out-loud funny. Don't be surprised, though, when the ending leaves you with a tear in your eye. The novel has a depth that one would not expect from a comic novel, exploring subjects from love and marriage to divorce and death, and, most importantly, the bonds of friendship, all through the medium of wine. Miles is self-deprecating and suffering from the failure of a recently penned novel, but despite his misfortune he is a truly lovable character who uses humor to get at life's deeper issues. Pickett's novel has been adapted for the screen by Alexander Payne of Election and About Schmidt, and is set for release this fall. Don't miss the chance to read the novel before the movie comes out - you won't be disappointed. Oh, and, pick up a bottle of wine - it'll taste better than usual alongside "Sideways."

Rating:
Summary: Fateful Journey on the Wine River
Review: Reading this book was like having a front row seat at a guy ant farm, where the reader can look through the glass and watch the main characters clambering through dark passages, bumping carapaces with other ants, and communicating in an annoying bug language as they journey to the altar of the Ant Queen for ritual self-immolation. As they drink, golf, and verbally spar their way through the central coast wine country, an undertow pulls Miles and Jack toward their day of reckoning. An awakening? A surrender? A reconciliation? All of that. Though I admit a lack of sympathy-these are the kind of guys that would let a middle-aged woman like myself flail and drown in the surf while pursuing some nubile wine-pourer down the beach-there is plenty of interesting substance to work over, and some beautiful lines, like the part with confetti fluttering into the void. There are also lines that made me laugh out loud. I enjoyed the flow of Jack's gradual physical destruction. Especially appreciated also were the Chandleresque interjections of local landscape. This could be a wickedly fun movie. A note of warning--it took me two days to read, and whether it was the molten red of a Dry Creek Petite Syrah in the eucalyptus grove at Cal Shakes, or the Port-O-Let blue of an agave margarita at Chevy's, this book made me overindulge!

Rating:
Summary: Pretty good portrait of an alcoholic and an actor dude
Review: See reviews above (or below). But also, Rex has been a screenwriter and his best writing in Sideways is dialogue. Dialogue that the famous director picked out verbatim to make a better film than Sideways is a book.

Not that's it's not an enjoyable read. The readers that opened up the liquor cabinet as they read are exactly right. This book has the infectious charm of happy hour at a wonderful bar full of characters and bold jokes, &tc.

Did anyone else notice the author may be a little conspicuous about his vocabulary and cultural pretentions? The film edits out the books unneeded snobbism. Miles is suppose to be rather full of himself as he licks his wounds from a divorce. The author himself injects the pretentiousness here and there. The wine facts are sometimes similarly overdone but on the whole they are quite interesting and broad reaching.

The film is really one of those masterful adaptations of a book that telegraphs at times that it was written by a beginner. One hopes Mr. Pickett hones and improves, because he's already quite good and fun in the rough.

Rating:
Summary: Solid if Unspectacular
Review: The term "sideways," as used in this novel, is a euphemism for drinking too much, like so many other words in English: loaded, smashed, ripped, looped, etc. When one drinks too much, obviously, one is not quite right in the head, so the word also functions as a metaphor for the two main characters here, Miles and Jack. Both of them, though well into their thirties or perhaps early forties, still haven't quite figured it all out, although Jack, perhaps, thinks he has.

Miles is the narrator of the story. He's lost most of his self-esteem following his very painful divorce, and is desperately trying to get a novel published so he can perhaps get some of it back. In the meantime he has become a wine expert, which allows him the opportunity to drink to excess at various wine-tasting events regularly held around town. Although seemingly unaware of it, he's in a rut--big-time--and he's pinned all his hopes on getting this novel published.

The plot of the story is his week-long visit to the wine country east of Santa Barbara with his friend, Jack, who will be married when they return. They are there ostensibly to purchase wine for the huge reception, but they both also look upon it as an opportunity to give Jack a bit of a send-off before the big event. To Miles' great consternation, Jack also looks upon it as one last opportunity for a final sexual fling or two.

It's an excellent buddy story, a classic take on the quintessential road trip, with lots of twists and turns and crazy events, all of which come about as the result of either Jack's excess or Miles' excessive timidity. It's the kind of thing they'll look back upon for the rest of their lives, with the retelling of it becoming bolder and more exaggerated as the years go by.

And in the end they learn a little bit. Miles decides he's going to be more honest with others--and himself. Jack realizes, after barely avoiding a potential disaster, that he does indeed have something to be thankful for. (Although how long he will maintain this is open to question.)

It's not a terribly deep novel. Miles isn't really insightful about much, rarely commenting in depth on the other characters he encounters, much less sharing his own feelings whether deeply held or newly encountered. The novel would not have lost a thing had it been written in the third person, which is why the movie--also excellent--really doesn't lose anything in the translation.

But it's nevertheless a good tale, entertaining, and with believable, enjoyable characters. A solid effort.