See the film first, the novel is a worthy compliment

books:


	• Sideways: A Novel Rex Pickett St. Martin's Griffin, 2004 - 368 pages average customer review:based on 89 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

A treasure

This book was amazing. I don't know what people are talking about when they say it led to a great movie. The movie was absolute garbage in comparison with the book. They're barely the same. This book was funny and absorbing. The best books are usually about things that you're not interested in. A man's last hurrah before he gets married wasn't something I was interested in, but Rex Pickett made it so endearing. Miles wasn't nearly as boring as in the movie, he had a mischievious spark, there was likability in him. He wasn't as depressed as he was portrayed onscreen. This book was simply a joy to read.

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See the film first, the novel is a worthy compliment

I became interested in this novel after I saw the film adaption. That is to say I became interested in the film when I saw it on cable and almost instantly identified with the character Miles. I rented a DVD and that was it, the film became one of my favorites ever. But after watching it so many times and learning of the novel that came before the film, I wanted to see if I could expand the limitations of the film by reading the novel. So, I purchased it a few weeks ago and haven't set it down since. I read it everywhere - at home, inbetween classes in college, in the car if I'm waiting on someone. It's a novel that I identify with so well. You learn a lot about wine very quick into it, but you'll also realize that the novel is much more wide-open and full throttle than the film. Miles is nowhere near as depressed as in the film, or rather he is extremely bipolar. The chartacter of Jack isn't expanded all that much from the film, but there's a few differences. The novel truly is an entirely different animal. It takes you far beyond the film, but I would reccomend watching the film first as it seems to help you understand more and visualize what's going on better, or at least that's how it works for me.

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Tongue in cheek? Still not sure.

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.

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minus one star for snobbery

Thoroughly enjoyed this easy, thoughtful read. At times the prose was brilliant. There was the 'thumbprint on a a window of a skyscraper' line that made it into the movie, but I also enjoyed this one:
"I was starting to get drunk now, and I was clinging with my fingertips to the last vestige of decorum. Soon, however, I knew there would come a moment when, without anyone's bidding, I would slip through a crack in the floorboards and find myself rowing across the River Styx with my demon entourage, and not until morning would I fully be able to assess the consequences."
Good stuff!
And now, the not so good:
"Our dates cameback to the table. Colloquies had taken place on opposite sides of the restaurant and we were now ready for the hoped-for rapprochement, the segue to higher zeniths of libidinousness."
Jeez!
But the real reason I'm docking Mr Pickett his fifth star is an interview I read, one he did for a screenwriters group. Yes, I know i'm supposed to rate the book not the person, but there is undoubtedly some intersection between the story of Miles Raymond and Pickett's life. In the interview, Pickett referred to Stephen King as a "hack", and that, given the choice between being a King or a Kafke, he'd choose the latter.
I found this disingenuous, as it sounds like Pickett was at the end of his rope financially at the time he wrote Sideways. There's no grand theme to the book--Pickett's no Kafke. It's D*ck Lit, as one reviewer called it. He should be happy the story has reached and touched as many people as it has. (And made him wealthier in the process!)

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

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.

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