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Type of bind: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.6
EAN num: 9780312342517
ISBN number: 0312342519
Label: St. Martin's Griffin
Manufacturer: St. Martin's Griffin
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 368
Printing Date: October 01, 2004
Publishing house: St. Martin's Griffin
Release Date: September 23, 2004
Sale Popularity Level: 219045
Studio: St. Martin's Griffin
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Product Description:
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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Rated by buyers 
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In the acknowledgments of his mid-Coastal road-trip buddy novel, author Rex Pickett thanks co-screenwriters Alexander Payne (who also directed) and Jim Taylour for their faithful adaptation of Sideways (Widescreen Edition) to the screen.
I'd thank them, all right, but not for being faithful.
The events of the story are, in fact, almost identical, save the exclusion in the film of a strange boar-hunting odyssey (which, ironically, I can almost imagine Pickett thinking as he wrote it, "Damn! This'll be great in the movie!"). There is a strong sense of place in both the book and the film--Pickett is clearly a SoCal denizen who has either logged a lot of hours in a lot of mid-Coastal non-hotspots or he has a keen eye and deft hand for recreating them.
But the film is so much more charming and nuanced and relaxed than the book it was shocking. Pickett, according to his back-o'-book blurb, "is a screenwriter living in Los Angeles. This is his very first novel." I know all of us writerly types are supposed to hew to the show-don't-tell maxim, but it's a screenwriter's stock in trade: let the pictures tell the story.
Instead, Pickett's novel is littered with insistent narrative assertions about the characters' smarts, sex appeal, inherent goodness beneath it all and--worst of all--their senses of humor. There is such extensive cataloguing of people's response to quips and jokes and witty one-liners that I actually stopped being annoyed and became fascinated. How many "i"s did this guy feel like he had to dot, anyway? Was this some kind of word-count padding? Or was it possible there existed a writer with lower self-esteem and belief in himself than me? Maybe I have a shot at this writing thing, after all...
The book did do an even better job than the film of piquing my fledgling interest in wine. But the film--with its confident, unapologetic and ultimately winning portrayal of complicated, flawed, but ultimately sympathetic characters--made me want to make art.
I wonder what Alexander Payne saw when he picked up the novel (or had it funneled to him by a minion or agent or however these things happen). Perhaps the answer lies in an archived Elvis Mitchell interview with Payne and Davis from KCRW's "The Treatment." I think I'm gonna have to listen. Sideways, the novel, isn't exactly a sow's ear. But it shares a pedigree with Sideways (Widescreen Edition), the film, which is definitely a high-end jewel, and rare for being so.
Rated by buyers -
I don't know what planet some of the negative reviewers are living on, but it's not Earth. Yes, there are a few problems with this novel, namely some of the unbelievable situations in the plot and the physical descriptions of Jack and the women characters (they're all too gorgeous). But these don't really mar the work.
Rex Pickett has a great ear for dialog (probably because he's written screenplays) and the novel is one of the few truly great books that has come out in the last few years.
I saw the movie before I read the book. That may have colored how I perceived the book because you can't help transferring the characters from a movie into a book. But still, it was an enjoyable read.
Rated by buyers 
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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.
Rated by buyers -
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.
Rated by buyers 
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I have major problems with the novel. First of all it's one of the rare times you'll hear me utter the magic words; "the movie was better than the book", but what makes this all the more depressing is just how much the movie is better. There are times when a film translates a novel so well that it surpasses the printed page, but I don't know if ever there has been a time as drastic as this. I adored Alexander Payne's `Sideways' and was so looking forward to reading Rex Pickett's novel that inspired the film. Sadly, Pickett's novel is not just a bore, but an atrocious one at that.
One major difference between the novel and the film is that in Payne's adaptation the characters seem real. They look like you and me. Miles is overweight, balding, depressed; eccentric. Maya, while beautiful, is not stick thin and is older. Jack looks washed up. He has some charm and a certain extent of good looks but he's also human. Tara is not your typical blonde bombshell. But here, in this novel, everyone is made to appear perfect. It was a turn off. Another turn off was the way in which everyone spoke to one another, especially Jack and Miles. It was so amateurish that it felt forced and immature. Another thing is that none of the characters are likable, not even slightly. Miles is whiney and unsympathetic and Jack is a complete loser who uses everyone around him and has no genuine concern for anyone around him. In fact I can't believe that anyone would want to be his friend, let alone his wife and if I were Miles I would have left him walking home on day one.
The novel sadly just comes across like a young boys fantasy trip, a trip where booze fall from the shelves and women fall at your feet. There is no emotion, no depth. Pickett attempts at the end to give Miles some sort of revelation and it doesn't fit, doesn't mesh and ends up coming short of meaningful. There are few scenes that captured my attention; a comical boar hunt that was omitted from the film being one of the only moments I can remember enjoying this read. All in all this was such a pathetically underwhelming read.
Maybe it had to do with the performances invested by Giamatti, Church and Madsen that made the film so enjoyable, but I can honestly say that this novel bored me to tears. If I had read this novel beforehand I may have never seen the film, it's that horrible.
I know I'm in the minority here, but I can't help but express my true feelings on this novel. It felt like it was 100+ pages too long, the wine descriptions went on forever, the dialog was immature and dreadful to read through and in the end I felt care or concern for no one, and that's never a good thing. I can say one thing, that reading this novel helped me to understand and appreciate Payne's Oscar win for best adapted screenplay. That he was able to take this pathetic excuse for a novel and turn it into a fun and fresh film deserves every award it can muster.
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