It was not fun. Guys who played high school football 15 yrs ago reminisce about the past. Melancholy and sadness.

STORY BRIEF:
Eddie Rake was a tough, mean, high school football coach with undefeated teams for many years. He now has cancer and is expected to die any day. Guys who used to play football for him have returned to town for the coming funeral. Neely was a star quarterback in high school. His career was cut short due to a knee injury in college. Neely talks with other guys about the past.

REVIEWER’S OPINION:
This isn’t the kind of storytelling I’m used to from Grisham. It’s not as fun. Almost everything is being “told” not shown. We listen to the guys reminisce and remember events from the past. It was interesting in a newspaper reporting kind of way. There is no excitement, suspense, or anticipation. I didn’t feel anything as I listened. I didn’t laugh or smile. At best it was ok. I felt the author may have been experimenting - trying a different style of writing.

Some of it was about brutality and violence in football. A lot of it was sad to see what happens to football players after they no longer play. I was sad for Neely at the losses in his life. His wrecked knee. He lost the only two women he ever loved. He broke up with one of them for a stupid reason, and he regrets it. He had no desire to study and better himself after his football career was over. He’s not happy. He’s resigned to life.

NARRATOR:
The author narrated his own book which was ok. It was interesting to hear his southern accent.

DATA:t
Unabridged audiobook story length: 4 hrs and 22 mins. Swearing language: none that I recall. Sexual content: none. Setting: current day Messina, Mississippi. Book copyright: 2003. Genre: football fiction. Ending: sad, resigned, life goes on.

Messina is a sleepy town with barely 8,000 people, but it manages to pack a 10,000 seat stadium every Friday night. The people there live and breath football and practically worship Eddie Rake, the larger-than-life head coach that led the Spartans on an 84 game win streak, putting Messina on the map. As far as the townsfolk are concerned, the man could do no wrong. The situation is a little more complicated with his players, however. While Spartan players forever enter a glorious an elite brotherhood when they sign up to play football, they go through physical and emotional hell on the field. Nothing short of perfection is acceptable to Rake and it bred fear and bitterness with many of his players, namely Neely Crenshaw, former All-Star quarterback. Neely was supposed to go all the way to the NFL and make his hometown proud until he busted his knee in college and was forced to settle for a life of mediocrity that includes an aimless real-estate gig and an ex-wife with no kids. He begrudgingly returns to Messina years later for Rake’s funeral, an event Neely never imagined would happen. The former Spartan teammates all gather and contemplate whether they love or hate Coach Rake. It is hard to forget how the man backhanded Neely at halftime in a fit of rage or ran a player so rugged that he died of heatstroke. On the other hand, Rake was a God-fearing staple of the community who regularly engaged in charitable works and was a driving force in desegregating Messina. As eulogies and a final letter written by their coach are read out, the community is able to fully appreciate the positive impact the man had, despite how severe he could be. After years of regret in how he acted and anger towards his former coach, Neely is finally able to embrace where he comes from and let go of his past so that he can move on.

I’m surprised I had so much to write about for this book. I enjoyed it, but I don’t suspect it will one I remember well or recommend to others. I appreciate that it was easy to listen to and that it didn’t at all overstay its welcome. As a former athlete that’s been involved in some coaching as of late, I’m appreciative of the impact and positive influence that role can have on young people. I’m blessed for the high school experience I had and I strive to be a positive and effective influence on students and athletes. I pray I can do this with little to no regrets.

A touching tale about glory days. In this case, high school football and an inspiring head coach named Eddie Rake. I got a little misty there at the end.

Un libro di memorie, sull'affrontare la morte e sull'essere stato un eroe e ora non esserlo più.

Ok story of glory days of high school football in a small town. I could relate due to growing up in a small town. However, the memories were "leading up" to a "big secret" that once revealed, didn't live up to the hype for me. Nice story, but wouldn't recommend unless you love football.

Es un libro muy corto pero tarda en arrancar. Cuando lo hace, esta historia sobre un polémico entrenador de football americano y su influencia sobre todos los que le conocieron, te engancha por completo. El final está cargado de sentimiento y te deja muy buen poso.

It was ok. Not one of Grisham's best works. I'd probably like it more if I were more in to high school football.

I read this on the flight to Austin two weeks ago. Totally up my alley since it is about an iconic high school football coach and the impact he had on multiple generations of players. The former players gather in the bleachers at the school awaiting the death of the old coach as he succumbs to cancer. They slowly open up to each other sharing stories of the coach, not always glowing ones and in the memories of these players, the character of a dying man comes to life. It's an easy read as Grisham usually is, but also as is typical of his writing, there are some unexpected twists and excellent development of the characters.

Bleachers was a good read that I highly enjoyed. Bleachers was all about a small town football team and one of the main character Neely Crenshaw returns back to their old town Mensia while their former coach, Eddie Rake is dying. Bleachers uses flashbacks through out the whole story, mainly just showing what impact Eddie had on these men back in the day. I would highly recommand this book to those who enjoy sports and deep story lines.

Fifteen years after swearing he would never return, Neely Crenshaw finds himself back in Messina, Texas, awaiting final word that local legend and former football coach Eddie Rake has died. When he left, Neely had become a local legend as one of the best quarterbacks in Messina High's history, but a falling out between him and the coach left him bitter and kept him away until this moment. Now, he finds himself drudging up the specters of the past with his former teammates as well as other former Rake players from other eras. This is a very painful novel to read having played high school football myself and I share many of the same feelings towards my old coach as Neely does — and as I'm sure many other former athletes do — despite the fact that I was not a star, hell I wasn't even a first stringer. In all honesty, this feels like a novelized version of what a sequel to the movie Varsity Blues would be. It's easy to tell that this story is very close to Grisham's heart and that he took the writing of this book very seriously as there are no cheesy subplots or alternate storylines to detract from the main story at hand. My only complaint was that this book was far too short. Clocking in at a mere 163 pages, this novel can be cranked out in one sitting and I felt that more could have been developed upon.

I appreciate a book without a theatrical plot, but this one was a bit mundane for me.

I enjoyed reading this. In some ways it is a very sad story though. There are a lot of people who are enthralled with football. If you are, I'm sure you will enjoy this.