Sideways: A Novel [Paperback]

Rex Pickett (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1, 2004

Sideways is the story of two friends-Miles and Jack-going away together for the last time to steep themselves in everything that makes it good to be young and single: pinot, putting, and prowling bars. In the week before Jack plans to marry, the pair heads out from Los Angeles to the Santa Ynez wine country. For Jack, the tasting tour is Seven Days to D-Day, his final stretch of freedom. For Miles--who has divorced his wife, is facing an uncertain career and has lost his passion for living-the trip is a weeklong opportunity to evaluate his past, his future and himself.

A raucous and surprising novel filled with wonderful details about wine, Sideways is also a thought-provoking and funny book about men, women, and human relationships.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Two old friends set out for a weeklong romp through Santa Ynez, Calif., wine country that comically strains their friendship in Pickett's lively debut. Smart, hapless narrator Miles is divorced and broke, and his novel's been rejected all over town. His handsome, "ursine" best friend, Jack, a successful actor, is about to get married, and wants to enjoy a few last days of freedom. Pickett gleefully chronicles their many minor adventures, including the oversexed Jack's attempts at getting laid, a boar-hunting episode and a staged car accident. Add to that massive amounts of wine: oenophile Miles swills rather than sips, and Jack's always been a party guy. While Jack works his charm on the ladies, Miles has his own flirtation with a lovely waitress. Miles can be a delightful narrator, but he's no prince: he's a bore when it comes to wine, for example, and he can get a little pseudophilosophical ("photos mock the present by staring back at us with their immutable luster of our youthful past"). He also thinks nothing of snatching a couple thousand dollars from his alcoholic mother on her birthday. But redemption for all is promised and Pickett takes his readers on a jolly ride. His novel sounds like a perfect buddy flick, and indeed, it will have its chance: Alexander Payne (About Schmidt; Election) is directing it for Fox Searchlight.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Screenwriter Pickett's debut, already a film in the making by Almost Schmidt director Alexander Payne, is a buddy novel in the cinematic vein of Swingers. Two longtime friends, Miles, a struggling, cynical, recently divorced writer and wine snob, and Jack, a soon-to-be-wed TV director, leave Los Angeles for vineyard country on Jack's last week as a bachelor. Their road trip of endless imbibing and carousing feels like Dharma Bums updated with metrosexual panache. Miles is most interested in consuming wine while Jack is hell-bent on consummating one last affair. Jack's suave demeanor and classically handsome mug get both friends into uproarious and dangerous situations in this rambling comedy of errors. Pickett plays the sex-and-the-single-man angle for all its worth here, nodding occasionally at such larger themes as friendship and romance. Call it Nick Hornby lite. Misha Stone
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 354 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin; First Edition edition (June 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312324669
• ISBN-13: 978-0312324667
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (124 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,496,676 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Rex Pickett is a novelist and a screenwriter living in Santa Monica, CA. His new novel "Vertical" is a follow-up to his novel "Sideways" -- from which the critically-acclaimed Alexander Payne film was made -- and will be available September, 2011. Visit him on his Web site at: rexpickett.com.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

103 of 111 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Pinot envy February 21, 2005

By Bevetroppo

Format:Paperback

Miles is an alcoholic and he's a bad role model, or so says an article in the Sunday NY Times today. Thirty-something wine wannabes are packing the Hitching Post and reciting lines from the movie like crazed Rocky Horror Show refugees (especially when it comes to defaming Merlot), according to the Wall Street Journal a few days earlier.. Who would have ever thought wine geekdom could be so hip, so funny, so sexy? Alexander Payne deserves an Academy Award for accomplishing this feat alone, and we'll know next week if he gets it. Among its other nominations, Sideways is also up for best adapted screenplay, and now that I've read the book, it certainly gets my vote in this category.

I'm not sure what was going through my mind when I decided to buy the book after having seen and loved the movie. I guess at worst I thought I could read the stuff specifically about wine and continue sifting through it to see if I could find any false notes (what else would a geek do?) The cheap-looking puke green paperback cover with the unpromising come-on, "The ultimate roadtrip. The last hurrah," certainly didn't compel me.

But my fears were unfounded. The book is miraculously even better than the movie on almost every dimension. The characters are richer, and the story is both funnier and more believable. For starters, Miles is better -looking than Paul Giamatti. Only a truly sideways wine geek could believe for a minute that Virginia Madsen or any other Maya could fall for someone with a puss like that. Maybe the movie should have been titled "Revenge of the Wine Nerds."

The plot of the book roughly parallels the movie, but the details are deliciously different and absolutely repay reading the book. I'm assuming most people who read this review have already seen the movie, so you should be able to relate to the points of departure that follow. I'll do my best to pique your interest without revealing anything that discourages you from reading the book. Miles isn't a teacher; Miles is cute; Maya is a brunette and the Sandra Oh character is a petite blonde named Terra and she doesn't have a daughter; Jack is smarter, richer, and even more charming; Miles and Maya have a scene in a hot tub; Jack's fiancée is a WASP costume designer with a nasty streak, not a saintly ethnic virgin; a memorable character named Brad never makes it into the movie; there is no '61 Cheval Blanc but there is an '82 Latour that isn't consumed alone in a fast food restaurant; Maya seduces Miles with a bottle of '85 La Tache and a Jayer Richebourg he literally laps up (now that's a fantasy that would make any wine geek's cork pop); Jack is disfigured on several occasions but not from a bashing with a motorcycle helmet.

The book opens with a great scene in an LA wine bar/retail store where Miles typically goes for Friday afternoon tastings that often just serve as an excuse to get blasted for $5. There are sharp portraits of the "regulars," exactly the kind of uber-geeks who populate the fringes of the cult of wine. Compared to these nitwits, like the guy who feverishly records all his tasting notes on a laptop, Miles seems relatively normal and well adjusted. This scene presages a lot of what will unfold in the rest of the book, and it's the one element of the plot I most wish had made it into the movie.

If you liked the movie, I wouldn't hesitate to plunge into Sideways with the same abandon that Jack and Miles demonstrate on their weeklong bender. I suspect you'll experience the same thing I did, which is a curious sense of being slightly tipsy throughout as you observe the movie plot you know competing with the denser, more credible, and ultimately more satisfying storyline of the original. In wine-geek land you often hear vineyards described as "plots," so just as two plots that are right next to each other can produce wines with markedly differing "character," so too the movie and the book will vie for your attention and affection. Which you ultimately prefer, well, as the French would say, chacun son gout.

23 of 25 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Just like a fine wine ... January 27, 2005

By Frank Upchurch

Format:Paperback

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.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Get Sideways!!! February 28, 2005

By chris meesey Food Czar VINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback

A wonderful, refreshing (and thoroughly alcoholic) read, Sideways centers on two main characters: Miles, an Apollonian, writer, always pondering existence and his meaning and place in it; and Jack, a Dionysian (how appropriate for a wine novel!), happy-go-lucky, live-for-the-moment kind of guy. Together, they spend a week on the road in California (Santa Ynez) wine country, so Miles can kill time and entertain his best friend while awaiting (hopeful) publication of his first novel; and so Jack can get some last minute "action" before sacrificing himself on the altar of wedded bliss. Many hilarious scenes ensue, particularly the opening $5 tasting opus at the local wine purveyor, the delightful Pinotfest at the Fess Parker winery late in the book, and any scene involving Maya and Terra, two delicious honeys picked up by the guys during their debauchfest. Doublecross and betrayal, staged auto accidents, a wild boar hunt with a real wild bore (note the change in spelling!), and tastings aplenty will have both the wine novice and aficianado alike on the edge of their seat. The lead characters are especially memorable: Miles and Jack discover they truly need each other. Miles needs Jack to keep from sliding into depression after his recent divorce, and Jack not only needs Miles to get him to the wedding on time, but also to have a soul buddy he can truly relate to. (One of the best ironies of this book is the fact that Jack can score with women, but can't relate to them, while Miles can relate to women, but often can't seem to score with them!) A fabulous read, to be sure. However, before buying a copy, the truly astute reader will be sure to have certain supplies on hand: 1. Vino, of course: any good wine will do, but preferably pinot noir (or the reader's favorite, it really doesn't matter, so long as it's grape), 2. A copy of the DVD: after completing the book, the reader will want to watch the movie over and over again (trust me!), and finally, 3. If the reader is a wine novice, he or she will want to have a good wine guide on hand; how about Andrea Immer's delightful Great Wine Made Simple, especially since she is mentioned by name in the novel? In any case (pun intended!), the reader will want to return again and again to the wonderful world of Sideways, and you may even want to "get a little sideways" yourself each time you reread it!!!