Book Review: Sideways by Rex Pickett
May. 18th, 2006 10:14 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
juushikaTitle: Sideways
Author: Rex Pickett
Published: New York: St. Martin's Press, 2004
Page Count: 354
Total Page Count: 17,078
Text Number: 47
Read For: My own "enjoyment"
Short review: I read this book out of a desperate need to read something/anything (my bookshelf is sparse right now), and it wasn't even worth it under those circumstances. Sideways is a book about a week-long bachelor party as the protagonists goes on a road-trip with his soon-to-be-married best friend to visit the vineyards in the Santa Ynez valley. Miles, the protagonist, is a divorced, failed writer with anxiety problems; his friend Jack is a shallow, successful, womanizing bastard. Throughout their journey, Miles comes to terms with his divorce and Jack comes to terms with his impending marriage while they bond and prepare to part ways after Jack's marriage. The writing is readable but unremarkable, the plot is uninspiring and sickeningly mundane, and the characters are despicable. The gritty, anti-social, imperfect realism is no doubt intentional, but it doesn't really matter—no matter the intent or excuse, the book is still bad. I don't recommend it and I never have plans to pick it up again.
I'm not sure what else there is to say about Sideways. Perhaps my hatred for the text is personal: I dislike sex-based relationships, I dislike drinking, I dislike people that succumb to or create mental illness, I dislike unfaithful relationships, hell, I dislike almost everything that appears in the characters and plot of this book. Even with that taken into account, however, I can't find any redeeming qualities that make Sideways worth the read. The first 9/10th of the book can be simply uncomfortable and embarrassing to read, and it's hard to sympahtize with characters who exceed anti-heroes and become downright unlikeable. When the characters finally begin to mature and learn, at the every end of the book, their personal revelations don't make up for the pain of reading the vaster majority of the text. The minimal amount of self-acceptance and maturity that they gain is something that, as middle-aged men, they really should have had all along; it's hard to celebrate with them or even give a shit. It's a lot of uncomfortable and painful reading for very little gain.
Combined with truly unremarkable story-telling and language, the plot and end of this book don't make it worth the time it takes to read it. Avoid Sideways—there are much better books out there, even if they weren't turned into Fox Searchlight films, and there are better things to do with your time.
Review posted here at Amazon.com.
Author: Rex Pickett
Published: New York: St. Martin's Press, 2004
Page Count: 354
Total Page Count: 17,078
Text Number: 47
Read For: My own "enjoyment"
Short review: I read this book out of a desperate need to read something/anything (my bookshelf is sparse right now), and it wasn't even worth it under those circumstances. Sideways is a book about a week-long bachelor party as the protagonists goes on a road-trip with his soon-to-be-married best friend to visit the vineyards in the Santa Ynez valley. Miles, the protagonist, is a divorced, failed writer with anxiety problems; his friend Jack is a shallow, successful, womanizing bastard. Throughout their journey, Miles comes to terms with his divorce and Jack comes to terms with his impending marriage while they bond and prepare to part ways after Jack's marriage. The writing is readable but unremarkable, the plot is uninspiring and sickeningly mundane, and the characters are despicable. The gritty, anti-social, imperfect realism is no doubt intentional, but it doesn't really matter—no matter the intent or excuse, the book is still bad. I don't recommend it and I never have plans to pick it up again.
I'm not sure what else there is to say about Sideways. Perhaps my hatred for the text is personal: I dislike sex-based relationships, I dislike drinking, I dislike people that succumb to or create mental illness, I dislike unfaithful relationships, hell, I dislike almost everything that appears in the characters and plot of this book. Even with that taken into account, however, I can't find any redeeming qualities that make Sideways worth the read. The first 9/10th of the book can be simply uncomfortable and embarrassing to read, and it's hard to sympahtize with characters who exceed anti-heroes and become downright unlikeable. When the characters finally begin to mature and learn, at the every end of the book, their personal revelations don't make up for the pain of reading the vaster majority of the text. The minimal amount of self-acceptance and maturity that they gain is something that, as middle-aged men, they really should have had all along; it's hard to celebrate with them or even give a shit. It's a lot of uncomfortable and painful reading for very little gain.
Combined with truly unremarkable story-telling and language, the plot and end of this book don't make it worth the time it takes to read it. Avoid Sideways—there are much better books out there, even if they weren't turned into Fox Searchlight films, and there are better things to do with your time.
Review posted here at Amazon.com.
