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(Original Review, 2002)


There's no reason why we should judge a film on the basis of how faithful or otherwise it is to the book: it should be judged by how good it is as a film. The ending of the book could not be depicted on film in those days because censorship would not have allowed it, but there's no reason to assume that Ford would have filmed Steinbeck's ending had he been able to. The artistic vision Ford was expressing was not Steinbeck's, but his own. My own view is that Steinbeck was a fine novelist, but that Ford was a great film-maker. Steinbeck's "The Grapes of Wrath" is a fine novel, but Ford's "The Grapes of Wrath" is a great film.

If you're into stuff like this, you can read the full review.

Georgia is at her final wedding gown fitting when she spots her fiancé walking down the street with a woman and child.  Learning that her fiancé has been less than open with her, she runs back to her childhood home only to learn that her parents are splitting and selling their family vineyard to a competitor.  Georgia has a lot to sort out.

I enjoyed this book.  There are a lot of family secrets that come out when Georgia returns home.  Accusations are made and Georgia has to face up to some of them as others in the family have to face up to theirs.  It makes for interesting reading as Georgia keeps putting her problems on the back burner to deal with others' problems only to have them force her to face her own problems.  She needed their insights.

I liked most of the characters but not all.  I wasn't crazy about her fiancé, her brother Bobby, or her mother.  They were not warm, fussy people.  The ending is what was right for Georgia.

I won this book in a giveaway. Overall, not really my kind of book. I really enjoy wine and have liked other vineyard-based novels, but this one was not my glass of wine, so to speak. I was really intrigued by the opening quote, "You have to grow about eight hundred grapes to get just one bottle of wine. If that isn't an argument to finish the bottle, I don't know what is." Unfortunately, once I turned the page, the novel took a sharp nose dive. I feel like it is supposed to be a book that you can relax to, enjoy a glass of wine or whatever. But it had the opposite effect on me. I felt stressed and annoyed by everything. The premise was silly. The main character was annoying. The ending was predictable. The writing was confusing, repetitive, and overly simplistic. The dialogue was awkward. I feel like most of the events in the book could have been avoided if all of the characters simply stopped blowing every little thing out of proportion. I couldn't help thinking that I was reading about a bunch of children. Most of the stuff wasn't even that big of a deal, but they (especially Georgia) acted like it was the end of the world. Which leads us to the ending. Seriously? What kind of ending was that? Without giving anything away, it is the most fake fairy tale ending where everything kind of works out without anyone really doing anything. Really? How unsatisfying. I can see this book being popular in book clubs, but it was not a good fit for me. The snobby wine-maker/drinker attitude of the narrator certainly didn't help much. I apologize for the overly-negative review. I really hate when the things I dislike outweigh what I do like in a book. At least now that I am done with reading and reviewing the book , I am allowing myself to enjoy a nice glass of wine. Cheers.