Sideways: A Novel by Rex Pickett Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Sideways: A Novel
Book Review: The book & film are great! But the book is best!
Summary: 5 Stars
It seems to be a consistent theme that the book is better than the movie; when it comes to adaptations, which I certainly feel is the case with this work. The book had so many extra details, for example: the pig hunter, the characteristics of Jack's fiancée was more detailed and the ending which conveys a grim prophecy for Jack's success in marriage, but new beginnings for Miles. The film characters were more racially and culturally diverse, which I feel represents the world today, but I am interested to know what prompted this enhancement from the book? Pickett was successful in providing a fun and entertaining story, and I'm sure the wine industry in California has benefited from his work!
Nicholas R.W. Henning - Australian Author
Author of: Boomerang Baseball and The American Dream: From Perth to Sacramento
Book Review: Timing + Identification = great read.
Summary: 5 Stars
I bought this novel soon after seeing the film adaptation during its theatrical run. However, I didn't get around to reading it until watching the movie again on cable a couple of weeks ago. I'm glad I waited, because cracking the book now was like opening up a great bottle of wine at its peak.
After the movie's success, most folks are probably aware of the basic plot. As a "last hurrah" before Jack's wedding, he and his best friend Miles take a weeklong road trip to Santa Ynez wine country. Craziness ensues. Of course, as other reviewers have noted, the two "Sideways" have their differences. In the book, things kick off with Miles at a wine tasting, and conclude at Jack's wedding with an altered dynamic. Miles has all of his hair. Jack's vacation hookup is a wild blond named Terra. And both men play a most dangerous game with a pimply sociopath named Brad. But despite the differences, the similarities with the movie are enough so you won't be dismayed if you're a fan.
The movie resonated with me, and the written version struck even deeper. That's mainly due to timing and identification. Ten years ago as a twentysomething teetotaler, I probably wouldn't have given either version of "Sideways" a second glance. But in 2001 I drank my first glass of wine (seminary will do that to a guy), and by the movie's release I was primed for the vino theme. I've also done a lot of traveling, so the road trip idea appealed to me both literally and metaphorically. And I recently turned 39, which is Miles' age in the book. Add to that a shared anxiety with Miles about writing and women, and I was hooked. It only got better from there.
A compelling part of "Sideways" is its depiction of a cataclysmic event in a single man's life: his best friend's marriage. For the groom it's the beginning of a lifelong commitment (hopefully) and rite of passage into a whole new world of adult credibility. But for the remaining singleton, it's the end of his closest relationship and an unspoken acknowledgment of relational inferiority. Of course, the friendship began to wither the day when two became three. But the final nail in their camaraderie's coffin is the wedding day. I've been every male role but the groom in many weddings, and the author nails the angst involved. I identified with Miles' feelings of loss and being left behind in what marrieds consider the pitiable world of singleness. Another aspect I sympathized with was Miles' fear of getting close to Maya. She's a bit more exotic and forward here than in the movie, and that intimidates him. Miles wants her, but at the same time is haunted by past failure and present inadequacy. He fears rejection - and success. You really can hold two different beliefs at the same time...
I treasure books where I can closely identify with the main character. This is one of those times, and therefore I'll remember "Sideways" as a literary gift given at just the right moment in my life. Recommended for all aging single guys who love wine, live with regret, desire to rise above the ordinary, and long to take a relational risk - even if they fear the possibilities.
Book Review: Tongue in cheek? Still not sure.
Summary: 3 Stars
I picked this book up a couple of years after first seeing the film. I'd never seen the lead actors before, though Paul Giamatti seems everywhere these days, and really enjoyed the movie version (in large part, note, to a strong Jones for Sandra Oh). I'm about halfway through the novel and it, too, is enjoyable, but it required huge effort to ignore the horribleness of the writing and it amazes me the novel was optioned because of absolutely basic writing flaws. It reads for the most part, like a novel by a Freshman college student who "wants to be an author" in a fiction class. I mean, look at the first line, quoted by Amazon in the sales blurb. Could there be more pretentious, inelegant writing? "It was a dark and stormy night..." quality. The writing only gets worse as you read and it leaves you open mouthed in disbelief. I didn't, and still do not know if it is all tongue in cheek since the main character, the narrator, is a failed author (though he's had some success in film) and maybe his thesaurus-driven hyperbole and inapt descriptive powers are a long running joke. I tend to think Pickett is simply a bad writer. Though I enjoy the situation in the book, this is fueled by my love of wine and had I not seen the movie I would have stopped at page 1.
All of this leads me to wonder how this was ever printed, let alone how the director both got a hold of it and himself managed to hack his way through it. Of course, once the film was made, everyone will ignore reality and jump on the bandwagon of blind praise as we see in the number of 5-star reviews here on Amazon (complete with the seemingly obligatory wine-analogy cliches, like "the story pours out uplifting and warming as a fine pinot..."), but what editor read past the first line and offered to publish this, and why didn't they, if they managed to see the kernel of fun in it, why didn't they EDIT the bad writing out?
In short, I have enjoyed this book so far (page 200) simply through a massive effort of will to ignore the writing and just follow the story line.
Book Review: Uproarious, brilliant treatise on men
Summary: 5 Stars
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.Book Review: Upside Down, Inside Out, Round and Round
Summary: 3 Stars
Screenwriter Rex Pickett's debut novel, Sideways, reads like the debut novel of a screenwriter who longs to be a novelist. The problem is he lacks the attention to detail that would have turned his episodic tome into at least a mediocre novel.
The book's narrator, Miles Raymond, is a divorced and largely unsuccessful writer who is on the on the precipice of success which, has up until now, evaded him. Yet instead he seems to be standing on the precipice of a literary cliff, unwilling to lean too far over the edge for fear of plunging to his death. He is however, a lover of the grape, a wine connoisseur, who, as it happens, loves wine a little bit too much for his own good.
Miles' ursine best friend, Jack, is a successful actor and womanizer, who is to be married in a week. In fete that would please the most the discriminating literary horticulturalist, Pickett has managed to mate two standard Hollywood film genres (the bachelor party and the road trip) into one hybrid novel. Miles and Jack set off on a week long road-trip-bachelor-party through the California wine country. Along the way they meet two women, Maya, who has taken an interest in Miles and her friend Terra, whom gets Jack's attention.
Where this book falls flat is its mind boggling lack of details... what do we really know about the characters? Not a whole lot. We know that Miles is a writer, but we don't know what he writes or what he as written. We know that he has been divorced for a year, but still has not gotten over his ex-wife, Victoria. We know that Jack is a successful actor, but there is not one mention of a show or movie he was in, and even more of a mystery, if he is such a successful actor, why then does no one recognize him? We know he is going to be married to Barbara in a week. We know that Maya is a waitress and Terra works at a winery but we know precious other details of their lives. We know that every character loves wine, and as such wine is almost another character in the novel, but there is almost no description of the wine making process or what makes one wine different from another. And lastly, for a book that is set in the California wine country there is precious little descriptions of it, its landscape or its typography.
In short, Pickett has succeeded in writing a novel of a screenplay before the screenplay was even written. Do yourself a favor, skip the novel and go right to the movie as this is one of the rare instances where the movie was actually better than the book.