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Vertical: The Follow-Up to Sideways
by
Rex Pickett (Goodreads Author)
The follow-up novel to the blockbuster Sideways tracks the continuing story of Miles Raymond and his buddy Jack. It's seven years later. Miles has written a novel that has been made into a wildly successful movie, and the movie has changed his life. Jack, contrarily, is divorced, has a kid, and is on the skids. Phyllis, Miles's mom, has suffered a stroke that's left her wh...more
ebook, 404 pages
Published
December 21st 2010
by Loose Gravel Press
(first published January 1st 2010)
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First, if you're looking for a Sideways clone, this isn't it, though it IS a logical sequel. While it is a book about wine-tasting and craziness that accompanies it (this is a thing, I guess), it's a different kind of buddy movie -- in some ways, much more complex and even dark.
The premise is straightforward: Miles, the down-and-out author narrating Sideways, has become quite financially solvent from the success of the movie that Sideways (referenced frequently in Vertical, though by an alias)....more
The premise is straightforward: Miles, the down-and-out author narrating Sideways, has become quite financially solvent from the success of the movie that Sideways (referenced frequently in Vertical, though by an alias)....more
I was very excited to read this, but was incredibly disappointed. A few pages in the book it became clear why it had to be self-published. It is very badly written (could have REALLY used a good editor), and filled with the same repetitive tales - visiting a winery and talking up its wines (can you say massive product placement?) and then the author's crazy sexual conquests with the aid of viagra.
I enjoyed reading about the wines and wineries, in spite of my gripe about product placement, but wo...more
I enjoyed reading about the wines and wineries, in spite of my gripe about product placement, but wo...more
I am a huge fan of Pickett's first novel, Sideways, as many are and of course have also seen the movie. I am also someone who has vacationed in the Central Coast area and feel relatively familiar with it, as I do with Oregon where the mid part of this novel, Vertical takes place.
I wanted to LOVE this book but I found the first 2/3rds to be an self-indulgent rant by Pickett capitalizing on his first book and I found myself disliking the Miles character rather than being able to relate to him as I...more
I wanted to LOVE this book but I found the first 2/3rds to be an self-indulgent rant by Pickett capitalizing on his first book and I found myself disliking the Miles character rather than being able to relate to him as I...more
So like many people, I saw Sideways the movie first and later found the novel. This is the sequel or update, if you will, on the adventures of Miles and Jack - 7 years after Sideways. There is somewhat of a role reversal at play, as Miles is now the successful (quasi-autobiographical) author and Jack's marriage is over and his career is a nosedive after a continuation of his drinking/adultery lifestyle that apparently didn't deviate from pre-marriage days. Miles is clearly more successful and pr...more
Most sequels can't overcome the shadow of the first book, and this is no different.
Sideways was one of the greatest books I've ever read. I loved Pickett's detail and description, and the way he developed his characters was masterful. Now I wonder: how much of that was a hungry writer, and how much was professional editor?
Vertical was well written, and that's about the best I can say. I liked the way he fictionalized his life after Sideways, but it's no wonder he had to turn to self publishing....more
Sideways was one of the greatest books I've ever read. I loved Pickett's detail and description, and the way he developed his characters was masterful. Now I wonder: how much of that was a hungry writer, and how much was professional editor?
Vertical was well written, and that's about the best I can say. I liked the way he fictionalized his life after Sideways, but it's no wonder he had to turn to self publishing....more
If you want the same crazy book that "Sideways" was this was not it. In this sequel to that famous book, Miles is now amazingly successful, but the path of this book leads us down to the fact that after he assists his stroke ridden mother in committing suicide, he realizes that he too faces a world of aloneness unless he gets his act together and produces some quality work and quits drinking. Funny at moments, but overall very depressing. Rumor has it that Pickett is working on a third book, the...more
I'm a huge fan of the movie Sideways, and this naturally led me to the book on which it was based of the same name, written by Rex Pickett. I picked up Vertical from the library after finding out he'd written a sequel, and as it turns out, it's just as much of an emotional roller coaster as its predecessor. You'll laugh, you'll cry, and you'll come away from it with a sense of exhausted exhilaration as you follow the new exploits of Miles, who is now a published author, and Jack, who's divorced,...more
At first, I was a little apprehensive about this book. It started out with a man, once crippled by anxiety and depression, thrust into celebrity because of a book that he wrote. He was now living the high life of wine at almost every waking hour with nigh meaningless sex in between. But then he realizes he must help his stroke addled mother leave her current resting home to go to her sister in Wisconsin. Thus begins the road trip that in central to this book. As the road trip wears on the charac...more
Read this in January on my trip to St. Paul. Vertical is a passable sequel to Sideways - which I admit to not reading. Like most, I saw the film and loved it. But Vertical can't really hold a candle to the original. While it's easy to enjoy the funny characters, they never really get shaken out of their poses and seriously talk. They are somehow less vibrant on Pickett's pages than on the screen under Payne's direction. The tendency to make Miles a walking thesaurus is kind of annoying (although...more
I didn't even know there was a sequel to Sideways, until I saw it the other day on the ultra discounted list at Amazon. That's not a good sign, is it? I guess at least there's still a place to buy it. Did you know there's not a bookstore anywhere in Nashville, since Borders went out of business? This is not bullshit. I read it in Business Week.
It's revealed in the salty epilogue to the Kindle version of Vertical that Rex Pickett only ever made $150,000 from Sideways, the film of which grossed $3...more
It's revealed in the salty epilogue to the Kindle version of Vertical that Rex Pickett only ever made $150,000 from Sideways, the film of which grossed $3...more
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
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I actually put off reading this one, for fear that it would not live up to my hopes in following up its predecessor, which was a real favorite. But, I really enjoyed this book, too. It wasn't as good as the first one, but that was always going to be tough, purely on the grounds of the originality and unpredictability of "Sideways".
I'm glad the author wrote this sequel, and I'm glad I read it. It was good to catch up with these wonderful characters again, spend a little more time in their compan...more
I'm glad the author wrote this sequel, and I'm glad I read it. It was good to catch up with these wonderful characters again, spend a little more time in their compan...more
I was both excited and worried when I learned that Rex Pickett had written a sequel to "Sideways." I was excited because after I read "Sideways" back in early 2009, I wanted to read more Rex Pickett, and so it was pretty cool that his latest novel "Vertical" was a sequel. Of course I was nervous because it was a sequel and sequels tend to stand in the shadows of the earlier work, rather than stand on the shoulders of them.
"Vertical" takes place seven years after the events of "Sideways" and foll...more
"Vertical" takes place seven years after the events of "Sideways" and foll...more
I loved Sideways and was really looking forward to this book. Unfortunately, I was dismayed from page 1.
To begin with, it has a disappointingly unimaginative premise. It’s a sequel to Sideways which blends fiction and reality—Miles (the spit-bucket chugger protagonist) wrote a book about his escapades in Sideways, which is re-titled in this fictional landscape as “Shameless.” It was then turned into a movie, which shaped the wine industry and killed Merlot. Sound familiar? But this could be for...more
To begin with, it has a disappointingly unimaginative premise. It’s a sequel to Sideways which blends fiction and reality—Miles (the spit-bucket chugger protagonist) wrote a book about his escapades in Sideways, which is re-titled in this fictional landscape as “Shameless.” It was then turned into a movie, which shaped the wine industry and killed Merlot. Sound familiar? But this could be for...more
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I think of Vertical as a continuation of Sideways. Vertical is more of a mature novel. There is a lot of wine in this book and more than Pinot Noir. Vertical is a much more serious book; there is character growth. There are some scenes in this book that are so hysterical, i couldn't imagine they would materialize into a movie. Just like some of the funniest scenes in Sideways didn't make it into the movie. And i do hope this novel is made into a movie.
If you're looking for a 7-year later, some o...more
If you're looking for a 7-year later, some o...more
For much of this book, it seemed like a cheap ripoff of "Rex Pickett's life meets Sideways." But it is so well written and the protagonist's adventures so outrageous, I simply laughed out loud many times.
I also did not want my wife or female friends to read this out of fear they might truly believe all men are, in fact, pigs.
I am quite certain the Oregon wine industry thought Vertical would do for the Willamette Valley what Sideways did for Santa Barbara wine country. Unless the movie breaks the...more
I also did not want my wife or female friends to read this out of fear they might truly believe all men are, in fact, pigs.
I am quite certain the Oregon wine industry thought Vertical would do for the Willamette Valley what Sideways did for Santa Barbara wine country. Unless the movie breaks the...more
I loved Sideways, both the movie and the book and was incredibly eager to visit Miles and Jack again. This book was a fun read for about two-thirds of the way, but broke down, as so many sequels do in the end. Pickett introduces us to a new Pinot region, the Willamette valley and that section is, by far, the most entertaining set of chapters in the book.
It felt like the book was written more as a screenplay, than a novel and I have found Pickett's writing to be no better than ordinary. It's int...more
It felt like the book was written more as a screenplay, than a novel and I have found Pickett's writing to be no better than ordinary. It's int...more
Alternately uproariously comedic and touchingly sad, VERTICAL is a book that, like its predecessor SIDEWAYS, "goes places." Miles and Jack reunite, only this time with Jack as "wing man" en route to the Willamette Pinot Noir Festival, taking in tow Miles's stroke-addled mother, her dog, and her medical-marijuana smoking caretaker. Simultaneously ribald and tragic, events once again change the trajectory of Miles's life. The first half of the book will make you thirsty, and the second half will t...more
The follow up to Sideways was a huge disappointment. Mr. Pickett makes use of an expansive vocabulary that was obnoxious and over the top. It was terribly distracting especially given the fact that he would repeat words several times sometimes within a few pages...zaftig, enervated, bucolic, alacrity, anachronistic...just to name a few.
The story line was weak and repetitive and it really wasn't interesting at all. I finished it because that is just how I roll but I most likely won't be reading...more
The story line was weak and repetitive and it really wasn't interesting at all. I finished it because that is just how I roll but I most likely won't be reading...more
Apr 23, 2012
Jeff Raymond
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
read-general-fiction,
books-i-own-on-kindle
There are many unnecessary sequels in the world, and this is, in some ways, one of them. The sequel to the wine-heavy Sideways, this book takes place 7 years after that book, where Miles the author has made it big thanks to his novel about wine that got picked up and turned into a major, award-winning motion picture.
Yeah.
Part of the charm of Sideways was how down-on-his-luck Miles was, and with Miles being a more pompous rich successful dude this time, a lot of the appeal is lost a bit. Jack fee...more
Yeah.
Part of the charm of Sideways was how down-on-his-luck Miles was, and with Miles being a more pompous rich successful dude this time, a lot of the appeal is lost a bit. Jack fee...more
I never read the first book (Sideways), but did enjoy the movie, so thought I'd give the second book a try. Really shallow and stupid storyline, characters are much less interesting in writing than on screen. Essentially, the book is a tale of debauchery all the way through. The only thing interesting is the vocabulary..I admit I had to look up several words throughout (gotta love the built-in Kindle dictionary). Bizarre to have a stupid story and extremely academic words...strange combo.
The maxim "write what you know" is generally useful for writers of fiction, but if you end up writing only (or even mostly) what you know, you should probably just make the shift to nonfiction. Mr Pickett has an interesting story to tell -- how his life changed as a result of Sideways becoming a major hit. Instead of simply telling us this story in his own words, he instead uses the first person lens of his alter ego, Miles Raymond. The result is a bunch of art-imitating-life-imitating-art navel...more
Loved the movie Sideways, and was really looking forward to this book. What a huge disappointment. It's been a long time since i read such a poorly written book. The dialogue and pacing was really clumsy and stilted. Most of the humour was of the junior high variety. And the authors penchant for using esoteric, arcane words is a silly device, that comes off as quite preposterous given the general amateurishness of his prose. Never imagined Pickett would be such a bad author.
The first 300 pages of this book are exciting and full of crazy drinking, womanizing adventures. But the last 100 pages takes a much serious turn and gets very emotional. I still think this book is very much worth you time to read and promotes living life by the seat of your pants and enjoy a glass of good wine now and then. Hope to see more from this author who's mostly based his own life experience in the story telling of this book-what a life Mr. Rex Pickett!
This book really failed to hit the heights of the original in my opinion. And to be perfectly honest, by the end it was really dragging. By about page 250 I actively found myself despising both the characters of Miles and Jack and the book just seemed to fail to actually go anywhere. Having said that, some of the final scenes including Phyllis and Miles were heartfelt and nicely written, but on the whole it was a disappointment for me.
I'm just going to straight out say it: not as good as Sideways although I think I gave it the same ranking. The premise is that Miles wrote a book that changed the wine industry forever through the movie based upon it. Wink wink, nudge nudge. Despite the fact that he's obviously an author insert, he's definitely screwed up enough to avoid sue status. That annoyed me too much to enjoy the book a whole lot, however. It just didn't hold my interest.
Really disappointed in this one. Although I did not read Sideways, the movie was funny and I thought this would be another fun wine adventure. It was really vulgar (unnecessarily so) and the albeit a writer, the main character uses such flowery language to describe everything, it is annoying. I thought I had a fairly educated and broad vocabulary, but I came across too many words I didn't know. I don't want to have to look up words every other page for a casual read. I think the author wanted Mi...more
Having not read the 1st one but growing up near the locations described, this was a fun book about characters I was familiar with. I love where the author took these characters after their "success" and the story if their road trip made me thirsty. In between the wine and bacchanalia there was a story of hearts and healing. Very entertaining.
The follow-up to the novel Sideways. Interesting conceit (Miles is writing the book after the success of Sideways, and he is rich and famous). It is by turns raunchy, sad, and poignant. We were just in the Willamette Valley, so this was sort of a propos. If you like wine, or likes Sideways, it is worth a read.
Loved the movie Sideways, didn't read the book. And after reading (most) of this follow-up, don't think I will. This character is completely unlovable, and reading about being constantly drunk is akin to being the designated driver at a good party. Alos, never been a fan of the story within the story kind of books. Skip it.
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“I tapped a forefinger to my temple and raised my glass of single-vineyard Foxen Pinot. "Between here and here lies the Rubicon of the imagination.”
—
1 person liked it
“Wine is so complex, I mused. Thousands of experts and hundreds of thousands of amateur experts would rhapsodize or vilify the vinification of these seemingly simple bunches of grapes. But in the end, it was just these innocuous clusters, photosynthesis, rain or no rain, cool ocean breezes, alluvial soils, that produced these epiphanies in the bottle hundreds and thousands of miles away.”
—
1 person liked it
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