I entered into reading this book not through the author's previous books, rather from familiarity and enjoyment of the film version of Sideways. What I was pleased to find was that, despite some apparent differences between that film and the book that inspired it, the movie was enough to give me the needed background to leap into this latest adventure of writer/wine enthusiast Miles Raymond.

Where Sideways (the film, at least) felt very much about dealing with life's successes and failures and exploring opportunities to break out of self-destructive cycles, this book is very much about dealing with aging, looking back with the knowledge of paths not taken, opportunities lost, and determining how to move forward in that context. At the same time, it continues to present the comical misadventures of Miles and Jack, who remind me of how old friends and I often fall back on old patterns of behavior despite years gone by and otherwise having matured. As such, it achieves what many sequels don't, which is to revisit what worked before, but in a new way and with new things to say about the characters.

Sideways: New Zealand is an autobiographical novel written by Rex Pickett as a follow-up to his Sideways series, the first book of which turned out to be a literary success and resulted in an acclaimed movie adaptation directed by Alexander Payne. I haven't read the book or watched its movie version. Though Sideways: New Zealand is a sequel and contains many allusions to the events in the previous books, it can be read as a standalone novel. The novel is a black comedy that explores themes like growing old, catching up with one's past, the decline of literature, and the grip of algorithmic culture that promotes only the vain and ridiculous.

Everyone loved Sideways, certainly anyone who like me has now gotten four volumes deep into Rex Pickett's Sideways series. Having gotten the rights to Sideways before the actual publication of the novel, Alexander Payne's masterful film adaptation would have already been seen by eventual readers of the print edition. Like me, readers would have first fallen in love with the movie, one of the great movies of all time, so great it elevated pinot noir to unforeseen heights and tanked the merlot market with a single punchline ("If anyone orders merlot, I'm leaving, I am not drinking any f-ing merlot").

I've read all four entries in the series. The original bachelor party road trip through California wine country was followed by Vertical, a road trip to Oregon's pinot noir region, Sideways Chile, a road trip to South America that didn't do for the big wine producing country's sauvignon blanc what Sideways did for pinot, and now a road trip through New Zealand in which Miles is once again joined by his Sideways sidekick Jack, reviving his TV career with a reality show in nearby Australia.

Although New Zealand is renowned for its wine and this story finds Miles at the start living on his own little patch of pinot noir on the South Island, it is more about writing and reading and books than wine. Miles has just published his latest book and is sent on a book tour through Kiwi country, harboring a secret that will probably force him back to California. In the meantime, having left his pinot patch and his latest love interest behind, Miles traverses NZ with Jack in a camper van visiting a series of book clubs, each one more bizarre than the previous one.

The results are, in a word, hilarious. The overall arc of the story may be somewhat rudderless, but the vignettes are a lot of fun to read. Pickett's chances of achieving success on the order of the original Sideways are probably hurt by these book clubs being Kiwi rather than American, but this reader appreciated them nevertheless. Clearly there will be more Sideways when Miles returns to his home state, and I for one will be looking forward to it.

Thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for providing an ARC in exchange for this honest review.

I really enjoyed the first book in this series (as well as the movie which was hilarious) but didn't love this one as much as it was just a little too silly for me. Miles and Jack meet up again and this time are traveling in a camper van promoting Miles's new book. But the encounters they have with the "book clubs," while funny enough, sink into way too many unbelievable escapades that just had me rolling my eyes. So after the first few I felt like I could predict the catastrophe that would be the next! The end leaves us with a sequel so I won't give up on the series as Miles and Jack are funny by themselves, but this just wasn't favorite.
Thanks to NetGalley for this ARC!

A good intro to Rex for me! Silly of me to start here I think, but will need to pick up the others to become fully captivated and invested in the Sideways universe