Product Description

Raves for the film: 'This deliciously bittersweet movie makes magic out of the quotidian. And it makes it look effortless.' -Newsweek 'One of those rare movies filled with characters so vivid that when the closing credits roll, you're almost disappointed because you so want to keep watching these folks as their lives unfold.' -People magazine

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #44335 in Books
• Published on: 2004-09-28
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 368 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Two old friends set out for a weeklong romp through Santa Ynez, Calif., wine country that comically strains their friendship in Pickett's lively debut. Smart, hapless narrator Miles is divorced and broke, and his novel's been rejected all over town. His handsome, "ursine" best friend, Jack, a successful actor, is about to get married, and wants to enjoy a few last days of freedom. Pickett gleefully chronicles their many minor adventures, including the oversexed Jack's attempts at getting laid, a boar-hunting episode and a staged car accident. Add to that massive amounts of wine: oenophile Miles swills rather than sips, and Jack's always been a party guy. While Jack works his charm on the ladies, Miles has his own flirtation with a lovely waitress. Miles can be a delightful narrator, but he's no prince: he's a bore when it comes to wine, for example, and he can get a little pseudophilosophical ("photos mock the present by staring back at us with their immutable luster of our youthful past"). He also thinks nothing of snatching a couple thousand dollars from his alcoholic mother on her birthday. But redemption for all is promised and Pickett takes his readers on a jolly ride. His novel sounds like a perfect buddy flick, and indeed, it will have its chance: Alexander Payne (About Schmidt; Election) is directing it for Fox Searchlight.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
Screenwriter Pickett's debut, already a film in the making by Almost Schmidt director Alexander Payne, is a buddy novel in the cinematic vein of Swingers. Two longtime friends, Miles, a struggling, cynical, recently divorced writer and wine snob, and Jack, a soon-to-be-wed TV director, leave Los Angeles for vineyard country on Jack's last week as a bachelor. Their road trip of endless imbibing and carousing feels like Dharma Bums updated with metrosexual panache. Miles is most interested in consuming wine while Jack is hell-bent on consummating one last affair. Jack's suave demeanor and classically handsome mug get both friends into uproarious and dangerous situations in this rambling comedy of errors. Pickett plays the sex-and-the-single-man angle for all its worth here, nodding occasionally at such larger themes as friendship and romance. Call it Nick Hornby lite. Misha Stone
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review

Customer Reviews

Hilarious (but with feeling)
Pickett's debut novel brilliantly combines comedy and pathos, his main characters oscillating between the hilarious and the introspective. Miles, the narrator, and his best friend, Jack, are in for a week of unbridled hedonism; it will be Jack's last, as he is to be married at the end of the week. Miles' and Jack's antics are consistently hilarious, with well-written dialogue that is often laugh-out-loud funny. Don't be surprised, though, when the ending leaves you with a tear in your eye. The novel has a depth that one would not expect from a comic novel, exploring subjects from love and marriage to divorce and death, and, most importantly, the bonds of friendship, all through the medium of wine. Miles is self-deprecating and suffering from the failure of his recently rejected novel, but despite his misfortune he is a truly lovable character who uses humor to get at life's deeper issues. But try it for yourself! Pick up a copy! Another book I need to recommend -- very much on my mind since I purchased a "used" copy off Amazon is "THE LOSERS CLUB: Complete Restored Edition" by Richard Perez, an exceptional, funny, entertaining little novel I can't stop thinking about.

Hilarious (but with feeling)
Pickett's debut novel brilliantly combines comedy and pathos, his main characters oscillating between the hilarious and the introspective. Miles, the narrator, and his best friend, Jack, are in for a week of unbridled hedonism; it will be Jack's last, as he is to be married at the end of the week. Miles' and Jack's antics are consistently hilarious, with well-written dialogue that is often laugh-out-loud funny. Don't be surprised, though, when the ending leaves you with a tear in your eye. The novel has a depth that one would not expect from a comic novel, exploring subjects from love and marriage to divorce and death, and, most importantly, the bonds of friendship, all through the medium of wine. Miles is self-deprecating and suffering from the failure of his recently rejected novel, but despite his misfortune he is a truly lovable character who uses humor to get at life's deeper issues. But try it for yourself! Pick up a copy! Another book I need to recommend -- very much on my mind since I purchased a "used" copy off Amazon is "THE LOSERS CLUB: Complete Restored Edition" by Richard Perez, an exceptional, funny, entertaining little novel I can't stop thinking about.

Fateful Journey on the Wine River
Reading this book was like having a front row seat at a guy ant farm, where the reader can look through the glass and watch the main characters clambering through dark passages, bumping carapaces with other ants, and communicating in an annoying bug language as they journey to the altar of the Ant Queen for ritual self-immolation. As they drink, golf, and verbally spar their way through the central coast wine country, an undertow pulls Miles and Jack toward their day of reckoning. An awakening? A surrender? A reconciliation? All of that. Though I admit a lack of sympathy-these are the kind of guys that would let a middle-aged woman like myself flail and drown in the surf while pursuing some nubile wine-pourer down the beach-there is plenty of interesting substance to work over, and some beautiful lines, like the part with confetti fluttering into the void. There are also lines that made me laugh out loud. I enjoyed the flow of Jack's gradual physical destruction. Especially appreciated also were the Chandleresque interjections of local landscape. This could be a wickedly fun movie. A note of warning--it took me two days to read, and whether it was the molten red of a Dry Creek Petite Syrah in the eucalyptus grove at Cal Shakes, or the Port-O-Let blue of an agave margarita at Chevy's, this book made me overindulge!