pretty ok.

It must be boring to have to churn out a novel a year just because you’re a best-selling author. This ennui can be the only excuse for Grisham’s latest folly, Bleachers.

What a let-down when a crime novelist who once ruled a genre turns his hand to something more literary. “An unforgettable novel,” drools the inside of the book’s jacket, which was strange as I managed to forget it immediately. I had to drag the book off the shelf to remember the main character’s name.

Neely Crenshaw comes home for the burial of his school football coach, Eddie Rake. This coach was extraordinary. All of his boys remember him and the impact he made on their lives as they sit in the bleachers waiting for the stadium’s lights to dim and signal his passing.

Things have changed in his hometown of Messina. When he was a boy, there wasn’t a place to buy an espresso. Now, everything’s available and memories blur with real time.
Maybe this will appeal to American football fans but I got tired of hearing of the trials of Nate and Paul and Jesse. And I nearly lost it when Coach Rakes’s funeral lasted for almost 40 pages.
I studied the blurb again, “this novel….is about the many ways boys become men.” Really? Hmmm. Maybe you have to be a man to get it because it left me cold. His writing is competent but his characters lack depth. The plot was missing too, but maybe it was supposed to be. Who knows? Who cares?

I think this is one of the worst pieces of post 9/11 nonsense I’ve read. What a pity that a fine suspense author had to put all of his fans through this horrible ordeal.

Bleachers By John Grisham (Fiction - Novella)
Former high school football players return to their home town to wait for the death of their former football coach, Eddie Rake. Rake was hard on his players, bordering on sadist, but he shaped his teams into state champions who established records that still stand in their state of Mississippi.

Neeley Crenshaw was one of those boys who came to reminisce. There are days that he hates the coach and days where he loves and respects Coach Rake. There's a lot of bad blood between them and Neeley's not sure if he can find it in himself to forgive the coach.

Bleachers takes place in a small southern town. Like most there isn't much going on except the only entertainment in town, the Friday night football games. Their lives revolve around the team. It's not unlike many small towns where the players never grow passed their glory days. Yet, many of these players went on to be more in their lives. Maybe the coach had something to do with that.

Bleachers is one of those rare Grisham novels that isn't a lawyer book. I find that some can be boring because they fit into a formula. I believe Grisham reveals more of himself in these novels.

There was no purpose to this book. I don’t even recall picking it up. Don’t read as there’s no point.

This is a wonderful book about a high-school football star in Texas, remembering his glory days.

Really enjoy Grisham.

Thoroughly enjoyed this one. Brought back a lot of memories for me. When Neely and the guys were playing, I was struggling to play at Iowa. It was easy in high school but so much different there. In the end, I got my education and ended my football days early to save my body. We all had coaches with components of Eddie Rake. It just would have required melding about 8 of them into 1 to endure what the kids in this book did. Well done, Mr. Grisham.

I really enjoyed this story and Grisham’s way of telling it even though its main theme is american football, a sport I know nothing about…

I didn’t care for that chapter about that ‘87 game (POSSIBLY because I understood none of it; I barley know the term touchdown and have no idea what it means

Good, not a legal thriller like his other books. Recommended.

Sporty read! enjoyable,heartwarming,well developed characters with good storytelling..recommend (paperback!)

The good, the bad and the ugly ... !

If you're looking for a legal thriller, BLEACHERS, neither legal nor thriller, is certainly not the drink for which you thirst! In a quiet, pastoral yet moving style of writing which he was to re-use to incredible effect in THE LAST JUROR, Grisham has treated his audience to a powerful, evocative novella that paints a portrait of the final years of the century in Messina, a small town in deep south USA.

The story opens, develops and closes with Neely Crenshaw, the all-American quarterback who led his 1987 Messina Spartans high school team to an undefeated season, reminiscing about the life of coach Eddie Rake, who drove his players and teams mercilessly to an unrivalled win-loss record. Much of the team joins Crenshaw - Silo Mooney, the bad boy nose tackle who revelled in hurting his opponents; Nat Sawyer, the weak link in the team; Paul Curry, Crenshaw's best friend in high school; Mal Brown, now the town sheriff - as they wait for the symbolic dimming of Rake Field's lights to signal the coach's death, relive their glory days, replay the miraculous championship game of the 1987 season and struggle with their decision as to whether they love or hate the coach's memory and the effect he had on all of their lives.

I'll admit it ... this sounds like the stuff of one spectacularly boring novel and yet, somehow, even when it is read only on the surface as a tale of small town Americana, Grisham has succeeded in telling a warm, moving tale that I found every bit as compelling as the best of his thrillers. But, perhaps even more important, Grisham has provided the fodder for hours of controversial discussion on the best and worst of amateur and professional sports in North America! The worst - the win-at-all-costs attitude; the adulation and elevation of sports heroes and celebrities to an extent far beyond any real conceivable value in this world; the punishing, physical destruction of the bodies of young people as we force them to compete in contact sports up to our unrealistic expectations; and groupies willing to sacrifice their bodies on the altar of unthinking hero worship! And the best - the colour blindness of physical achievement in sport; the translation of the drive and mental discipline of sport into other life endeavours; the camaraderie and the synergy of a team willing to sacrifice individual performance for team success!

And Crenshaw's conversation with the Cameron Lane, the "good girl" he tossed over for Screamer, the leggy, short-skirted blonde floozy who was all too willing to roll over for the team quarterback, was so sticky sweet but, damn, it was good!

What an enjoyable read! And all over in the too short space of only a couple of hours!

Paul Weiss

A relatable book to any ex high school athlete. Touching to say the least. Boring to say the most.