Sideways : A Novel

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: 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!