2004, St. Martins Griffin

Sideways is one of my favorite movies ever (read my review here) and I've always meant to read the book but never got around to it before. Luckily, I got it for Christmas, and it was a quick, easy read.

I have to say, though, I'm a bit disappointed. 99% of the time, the book is much better than the movie, but this time, the movie outshines the book.

Miles, a divorced wine junkie, and his best friend Jack, a philandering actor, go on a trip to Santa Ynez wine country right before Jack's wedding. Jack meets a sexy wine pourer and has a passionate affair while Miles starts to fall for a smart, beautiful waitress.

For the first half of the book, the plot is basically the same, but the details are different.... names, places, and wines are named differently, but the stories were similar. Then, in the second half of the novel, the storyline is completely different from the movie, and that's where it fell apart for me.

Maybe if I'd read the novel before seeing the film, I'd have liked the book more. But the second half of the story just fell apart for me. My other big complaint is that Rex Pickett is not a wordsmith. He can tell a story, but his sentences and wording are pretty bland and artless, if that makes any sense. When Alexander Payne adapted the novel into a screenplay and directed it, he turned it into something hilarious, tragic, and beautiful. But I didn't feel much of anything when I read the novel.

It's an easy read, though; I read it in about two days.

If you haven't seen the movie, you might enjoy this book. But if you're only going to check out one or the other, see the movie.