Sideways: A Novel [Paperback]

Rex Pickett (Author)

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. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

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 --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 368 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin; 9th edition (September 23, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312342519
• ISBN-13: 978-0312342517
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.5 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (103 customer reviews)
• Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #30,598 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

93 of 99 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Pinot envy, February 21, 2005

By	Bevetroppo (Meyersville, NJ USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sideways: A Novel (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.

21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

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

By	Frank Upchurch (Dallas, TX) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sideways: A Novel (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.

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A very fine wine., October 16, 2004

By	David Rodriguez "Big D" (TX) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Sideways: A Novel (Paperback)

I just wanted to say that this book was excellent. With every description Pickett writes of the wine, I found myself wishing I could also taste them. The story is entertaining, and its characters are full of charisma. Granted many of their actions throughout the book are questionable, they never lose that charm. Especially Miles, whom I find I have a lot in common with. I really can't wait to see how it will come out on the big screen, hopefully it keeps all the flavor.