Sideways: A Novel by Rex Pickett Summary and Reviews
|
List Price: Our Price: $4.76 You Save: $11.23 (70%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $0.01 (click here) Category: Book See more book details and other editions |
|---|
Book Reviews of Sideways: A Novel
Book Review: Sideways
Summary: 5 Stars
Very entertaining, better than the movie if that is possible, but richer in detail and humor. If you love the Central Coast and you LOVE wine, read it.Book Review: Sideways: A Novel
Summary: 5 Stars
A funny, entertaining and well-written book. I have lived in LA for over 27 years so I can relate to many LA/ Southern California places and situations described by Rex Pickett. The movie was good but the book is actually better. It allows more factual and psychological detail than the film as it does not have the cinematic show time constraints. Good reading. Highly recommended.Book Review: So So
Summary: 2 Stars
The film was so so.The book is so so.What sideways does do well is show the true insideous nature of LA and its peopleBook Review: Still Sideways After All These Years
Summary: 5 Stars
I finally read Pickett's Sideways some years after the excitement of the movie and the Pinot Noir craze. Having spent my twenties in France, I don't really follow these California wines, especially now that I quit drinking completely.
Anyway, this book is OK, well written and quite funny. The issue is it is depressing beyond belief, all the characters are liars, cheaters, thieves, losers, and scoundrels.
Jack is a hopeless cad, chasing women on the last week before his wedding. Myles is a loser, with no friends, social skills, or future prospects. The girls they meet really should know better than to expect much from these two, but yet they do, and get hurt bad. The ending is a bit ambivalent, we are led to believe that even the paragon of virtue is a cheater, but perhaps two losers can be happy together. For some reason, the funniest parts (Brad the boar hunter and his penance, daily trips to the ER) were removed from the movie.
Book Review: The Ultimate Road Trip (3 1/2 stars)
Summary: 3 Stars
Miles is a divorced, lonely, wanna be novelist. He has high standards for women, but not in the usual sense. He won't date a woman who doesn't like Pinot, you could say that he's obsessed with wine.
In the midst of waiting to hear about his book getting published or rejected once again, he takes his buddy Jack on a "last week as a bachelor" road trip to Santa Ynez Valley, "the poor mans Napa/Sonoma." Jack looks forward to the trip and sees it as a male bonding experience, but also hopes that he will get lucky one last time, before marrying Babs in a week. He knows nothing about wine and wine tasting, but Miles tries to educate him. Like a good student, Jack answers, "I will try to remember that."
With Jack's fiance waiting for him at home, Jack and Miles tour wineries during the day and scan the local bar scene at night. Miles meets Maya once again, a waitress/goddess in the only restaurant he frequents while traveling there. Jack gets acquainted with Maya's friend Terra and they become a foursome. Miles is getting over his ex-wife who is recently remarried, and Jack starts to wonder if he wants to go down that path, as he becomes more and more infatuated with Terra. They are both living a lie as Terra knows nothing of Jack's upcoming nuptials and Maya isn't aware that Miles's novel is not even close to becoming published. Miles is the voice of reason, but will Jack listen? What will happen if/when their new friends find out the truth?
I found that the book was very similar to the movie with a few slight alterations and character descriptions. I liked that the ending was different, but I probably would have enjoyed the book more if I hadn't watched the movie first. It was interesting to see the differences between Miles and Jack, like an angel and a devil. Miles is cynical but honest, and feels guilty about everything. Jack floats through life and has the drive of a 15 year old boy. It's about friendship and how they change when someone gets married, getting over lost loves and finding new ones, and (of course) about wine.