23 April 2012

Review: Vertical: the follow-up to Sideways


Vertical: the follow-up to Sideways
Vertical: the follow-up to Sideways by Rex Pickett

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



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 feels like more of a cartoon character this time around, which also turns the characterizations around a bit. And the sex scenes in this book in particular were memorably bad. I don't recall them in the first book (although they were certainly there), but yikes.

I have a lot of negative things to say, for sure, but the reality? The book is a fun romp. There's plenty of completely absurd situations our group gets into, there's a lot of wine drinking (as expected), you get a bit of insight into what the post-Sideways conversation must have been like for Rex Pickett (the author of the book). It's good!

If you liked Sideways, this is worth picking up. It's not going to change your world like Sideways may have, but it's definitely a worthwhile follow-up that doesn't detract from the original.



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