Vertical: A Novel

From my perspective, I met a couple in a wine store in Leavenworth, WA, who highly recommended "Sideways" the movie quite awhile after it was in the theaters. So, my wife and I decided to rent it on DVD. After laughing for, oh, 2 and 1/2 hours, we decided to play the second audio track (I never do this; don't know why I did this time) and listened to Mr. Giamatti and Mr. Church riff for a couple of hours, pretty much unscripted. Their banter was maybe even better than the movie, if you can believe it! I got the strong feeling that these two guys actually not only like each other, but also hold each other in pretty high regard artistically. (I highly recommend re-renting "Sideways" and listening to the second audio if you haven't already.)I liked "Sideways" the movie so much, I bought the book in paperback form. Thank god e-books are now available; I won't even purchase a paperback anymore! And if you read a book from Rex Pickett, in paperback form, you'd also better carry around a dictionary 'cause the guy loves 10 dollar words. (I use the Kindle app, and often highlight words so that I may look up the meaning with the online dictionary. Only way to go.) I've thought alot about this: why does Rex Picket use such big words? Does he want to prove that's he's smarter than we? Well, maybe. But I think that it comes down to this: he believes that reading should not only be fun, but it should be educational. He wants to kick up the vocabulary of the average American, and if you read one of his books, well, you're bound to learn a few new words. You don't have much choice. I've learned many new words myself, even some new swear words! (Hey, Rex ain't no saint.)I liked the book "Sideways," but I'm not completely sure that I would have liked it as much if I hadn't seen the movie first, which I loved. In the book - not to give too much away - Jack goes to the hospital three (!) times on a one-week wine tour. A bit much. The screenwriter who adapted the story did a fine job of pruning by having Jack go to the hospital one time. There was other pruning as well. Heck, I read an interview with Rex Picket one time where he even thought that someone else could do a better job than he with the screenplay. Rex doesn't seem to have a huge ego, and that helps him. He realizes that books and movies are different media.Now, after all that, I'm finally onto "Vertical" the book. Bought it for a Kindle reader so I could use the dictionary, once again. The first half of "Vertical" is the standard Rex Picket fare, filled with madness and mayhem - but very funny - and the beginning of a road trip that you know will go south (even though they ironically are headed mostly north) to the International Pinot Noir Conference (IPNC) in McMinnville. (I've personally been to the IPNC twice now, and believe me, that is a party. If you go just on Sunday it won't break your bank account, and you can taste upto 60 Pinots during the day. I highly recommend you don't try all of them, and I also highly recommend that you use the spit bucket, but not quite the way Miles does. ;-) ) The IPNC is not the final destination for our literary passengers, however.After the IPNC, Jack puts his mother in the back of the Rampvan headed for Wisconsin, so that she can live the rest of her life in Wisconsin with her sister rather than an assisted-living facility that she hates. That's about all that I will say from a plot perspective. But Miles really changes gears here, thinking about all the wrong turns he's made in life as he takes the 3 day trip to Sheboygon. This introspection is very touching; quite different from anything that I've read from Mr. Pickett. I kept wondering, "How much of this is autobiographical? did this scene really happen?" etc. etc. And will Miles end up just driving off the cliff?Like Rex says, you need to have both comedy and tragedy to make a story work. And he's got both of those going on here with (I believe) a technically better book than "Sideway." Read it and weep. But maybe laugh a little, too.

*** Mild spoilers throughout ***Like many folks who have read this book, I suspect, I came at it first from the movie version of Sideways, which was fabulous, and got me interested in reading the novel on which the film was based. That got me to Rex Pickett's tale, which I thought was very good; not quite as good a book as the film version was a movie, but very good. So I was looking forward to continuing the journey and really, really wanted to enjoy Vertical. But I just couldn't...As others note, Vertical is set seven years after the events in Sideways. With art mirroring life, Miles is now enjoying west coast wine celebrity by virtue of having finally gotten a pretty good book published which by incredible good fortune was then turned into a highly successful movie. So far so good; so what's my problem?Well, first is the setting. It's another road trip, but this time the mission is transporting Miles's elderly mother back to her hometown of Sheboygan (determinedly down-market) to live with her sister. Again this includes passing through wine country, in this case the Willamette Valley of Oregon, but the descriptions of wines this time seem like canned drop-ins. I can imagine an index card somewhere with "Winery XYZ" at the top and few bullet points which then get ladled into the text. Also unsettling are several instances where Miles, in his new-found celebrity role, is booked to give speeches before various groups. These are reproduced verbatim and with Miles's descriptions of the crowd going absolutely demented with hilarity. But the speeches are just not that funny. Is this an attempt at an Unreliable Narrator device? Or has Rex Pickett actually experienced crowds going berserk for the weakest of humor -- maybe if enough wine is being consumed. And I'm finally sick of the word "quaff".But a story is about characters, not setting, and the central issue for me was that I did not find the character relationships to be working. The characters have certainly evolved since their Sideways days, and that's great. Indeed, full marks to Rex Pickett for the fact that Vertical is certainly not a rewritten "Sideways II". Unfortunately, though, every character has evolved with monotonous negativity. Miles is now manipulative, mendacious, and insensitive. Jack, previously a successful, charming rogue, is now a hopeless loser. But the worst fates are provided to the female characters. Both the Maya and Terra characters only get brief, largely off-stage cameos, but enough to tell us how bitter and used they feel. The gorgeous Maya is now described with crow's feet on her face from too much sun and too many cigarettes. And Miles's mother is now a stroke-addled, incontinent invalid -- and it is in that condition that she serves as the central supporting character and is on practically every page of the book.*** Heavier spoilers below ***As the novel progresses, the litany of loss and damage just goes on and on. We hear about Mile's sorry excuse for a father and brothers. There is a visit to Miles's lost uncle who lives in a dismal flop house. Jack suffers a "hilarious" medical mishap that involves having a doctor minster to his private parts in a manner not for the squeamish. The mother's caretaker spirals into monosyllabic hostility and eventually decamps, leaving Miles in desperate straits. Jack bugs out too. Even the mother's dog gets hurt.Don't get me wrong: it's great that the characters have evolved, and there is no reason to have a fairy tale story where every character is richer, better looking,and happier than before. Clearly Rex Pickett wanted to move opposite the direction of happy-go-lucky light comedy, and had some things he wanted to say about the selfishness of success, and how loss enters relationships. But for crying out loud, EVERY SINGLE CHARACTER has become a pathetic basket case, every relationship involves using people and ends badly, and just about everything goes wrong. Coming to this from Sideways is like picking up a new P. G. Wodehouse story and discovering it was actually written by Chuck Palahniuk.I will say the book contains heartfelt descriptions of what it's like to minster to an elderly family member who is now an invalid. Indeed if you are actually in that space in your own life this probably could be a suicidally depressing book. Yes, the last few pages (out of four hundred!)have some moving writing, as Miles and his mother finally connect and she revisits the scenes of her childhood. But even this veers so dangerously close to melodrama as to verge on (unfunny) parody.Will Vertical do for the Willamette Valley what Sideways did for Santa Ynez? Doubtful. Uplifting or funny? Don't make me laugh (really). Well written? Somewhat. Worth a read? Barely.

Looking forward to the movie! Excellent sequel to the amazing Sideways! I had no idea there even was a sequel until very recently, and was thrilled when I heard about it and even more thrilled after reading it!

Read this because I loved the film Sideways. However was a bit disappointed with this book - Rex Pickett isn't as good a story teller as those who directed/produced the film. He spends a lot of time complaining about the changes that were made to the story /characters in the film Sideways - which is annoying and disrupts the flow of this story. The descriptions of his shenanigans are also quite disgusting at times! To his credit though, the ending was very powerful and makes one think.

There's no-one that can pull it off like Rex Pickett. Odd ending though ... but read the third in the trilogy before you make your mind up.

Read this if you enjoyed Sideways (the film or the book) and/or if you love Pinot Noir. An interesting read.

A wine soaked emotional, hilarious, road-trip that was a fantastic read, well done to the author, he managed to get this spot on.

One of the funniest things I have ever read in my entire life, the only time I put this book down was because I was laughing so much