With Bleachers John Grisham departs again from the legal thriller to experiment with a character-driven tale of reunion, broken high school dreams, and missed chances. While the book falls short of the compelling storytelling that has made Grisham a bestselling author, it is nonetheless a diverting novella that succeeds as light fiction.

The story centers on the impending death of the Messina Spartans' football coach Eddie Rake. One of the most victorious coaches in high school football history, Rake is a man both loved and feared by his players and by a town that relishes his 13 state titles. The hero of the novel is Neely Crenshaw, a former Rake All-American whose NFL prospects ended abruptly after a cheap shot to the knees. Neely has returned home for the first time in years to join a nightly vigil for Rake at the Messina stadium. Having wandered through life with little focus since his college days, he struggles to reconcile his conflicted feelings towards his former coach, and he assays to rekindle love in the ex-girlfriend he abandoned long ago. For Messina and for Neely, the homecoming offers the prospect of building a life after Rake.

Physically a narrow book, Bleachers is a modest fiction in many respects. The emotional scope is akin to that of a short story, with a single-minded focus on explorations of nostalgia and regret. The dialogue, especially that of Neely's friend Paul Curry, is sometimes wooden as characters recall Messina history in paragraphs that were perhaps better left to the narrator. But Grisham has otherwise written a well-made, entertaining--if a bit sentimental--story. --Patrick O'Kelley


From Publishers Weekly
Grisham demonstrated he could produce bestsellers without legal aid with The Painted House and Skipping Christmas, and he'll undoubtedly do so again with this slight but likable novel of high school football, a legendary coach and the perils of too early fame. Fifteen years after graduation, Neely Crenshaw, one-time star quarterback of the Messina Spartans, returns home on hearing news of the impending death of tough-as-nails coach Eddie Rake. Neely knows the score: "When you're famous at eighteen, you spend the rest of your life fading away." It's a lesson he's learned the hard way after destroying his knee playing college ball and drifting through life in an ever-downward spiral. He and his former teammates sit in the bleachers at the high school stadium waiting for Rake to die, drinking beer and reminiscing. There is a mystery involving the legendary '87 championship, and Neely has unfinished business with an old high school sweetheart, but neither story line comes to much. Readers will guess the solution to the mystery, as does the town police chief when it's divulged to him (" `We sorta figured it out,' said Mal") and Neely's former girlfriend doesn't want to have anything to do with his protestations of love ("You'll get over it. Takes about ten years"). The stirring funeral scene may elicit a few tears, but Neely's eulogy falls curiously flat. After living through four hard days in Messina, the lessons Neely learns are unremarkable ("Those days are gone now"). Many readers will come away having enjoyed the time spent, but wishing there had been a more sympathetic lead character, more originality, more pages, more story and more depth.Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From School Library Journal
Adult/High School-A small klatch of players on Messina High School's 1987 football team assembles on the bleachers of Rake Field, home of the winning Spartans, and named after their controversial coach. Eddie Rake was the bane and bounty of three decades of athletes, and now he is dying. His personality comes to life as his team members recollect what it was like to play for him. As they come to roost on the bleachers, they all have a story from the coach's school of hard knocks. This is especially true of all-American quarterback, Neely Crenshaw. Coping with setbacks, longing for an old flame, and trying to make sense of the impending passing of the man who pushed him to the brink but whom he ultimately eulogizes is Neely's lot, and, readers can hope, the beginning of better luck. Teens will jeer and cheer in the appropriate places as they keep turning the pages, and, like the flavorful characters, will gain understanding from the perspective of the stands.Karen Sokol, Fairfax County Public Schools, VACopyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.


From AudioFile
Good old boys and football--it's hard to separate the two. Grisham's story of small-town Southerners who live for football is told mainly through dialogue, both internal and external. The downside of this production is Grisham's flat delivery and lack of acting ability. Writers often can hear dialogue clearly enough in their minds, but the verbalizing is no easy task. If you're wondering what Grisham sounds like, this is a great opportunity; if you love good acting and narration, this isn't. Middle-aged regret and crises abound among the characters, the common thread being their love of Coach. D.J.B. © AudioFile 2004, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine


From Booklist
Grisham's latest is a departure for him, perhaps even more so than A Painted House (2001). There are no lawyers on the run or murders to be unraveled. Instead, Bleachers is the story of a high-school football hero returning to the town of his youth when he receives news that his coach is dying. Neely Crenshaw has bittersweet memories of playing football for the Messina Spartans. Without a doubt, his career as the Spartans' quarterback was the pinnacle of his glory days, but his contentious relationship with Coach Eddie Rake taints his memories of the experience. Eddie Rake is man who is impossible to fully love or fully hate; his "boys" have memories of running miles in the stifling August heat and being yelled at mercilessly by their coach, but they also knew a man who cared deeply about the game and the futures of his players. As Eddie lays dying of cancer, Neely and many of the other former players gather together to remember their coach--his stunning six-year winning streak and many championship games, as well as the tragedy that led to the end of his career, and the incident that Neely cannot forgive or forget. Touching and quiet, this is a meditative, thoughtful tale that should find an audience with anyone from former and current football players to those who cheer them on. Kristine Huntley
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

ANNOTATION

Presents a novel about high school football in a small Texas town, a place in which football has become a religion.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

"High school all-American Neely Crenshaw was probably the best quarterback ever to play for the legendary Messina Spartans. Fifteen years have gone by since those glory days, and Neely has come home to Messina to bury Coach Eddie Rake, the man who molded the Spartans into an unbeatable football dynasty." Now as Coach Rake's "boys" sit in the bleachers waiting for the dimming field lights to signal his passing, they replay the old games, relive the old glories, and try to decide once and for all whether they love Eddie Rake - or hate him. For Neely Crenshaw, a man who must finally forgive his coach - and himself - before he can get on with his life, the stakes are especially high.

FROM THE CRITICS

The New York Times

This is a book designed to make a certain type of grown man cry, and the author knows exactly which buttons to push: dying father figures, the scars of tough love, middle-aged regret and the mythology of the gridiron. What saves the story from melodrama is Grisham's refusal to offer pat resolutions; he allows his ambivalent characters to remain so. It also helps that he's a sure-footed storyteller with an undeniable mastery of plotting, pacing and tone. — Jeff Turrentine

Publishers Weekly

Grisham demonstrated he could produce bestsellers without legal aid with The Painted House and Skipping Christmas, and he'll undoubtedly do so again with this slight but likable novel of high school football, a legendary coach and the perils of too early fame. Fifteen years after graduation, Neely Crenshaw, one-time star quarterback of the Messina Spartans, returns home on hearing news of the impending death of tough-as-nails coach Eddie Rake. Neely knows the score: "When you're famous at eighteen, you spend the rest of your life fading away." It's a lesson he's learned the hard way after destroying his knee playing college ball and drifting through life in an ever-downward spiral. He and his former teammates sit in the bleachers at the high school stadium waiting for Rake to die, drinking beer and reminiscing. There is a mystery involving the legendary '87 championship, and Neely has unfinished business with an old high school sweetheart, but neither story line comes to much. Readers will guess the solution to the mystery, as does the town police chief when it's divulged to him (" `We sorta figured it out,' said Mal") and Neely's former girlfriend doesn't want to have anything to do with his protestations of love ("You'll get over it. Takes about ten years"). The stirring funeral scene may elicit a few tears, but Neely's eulogy falls curiously flat. After living through four hard days in Messina, the lessons Neely learns are unremarkable ("Those days are gone now"). Many readers will come away having enjoyed the time spent, but wishing there had been a more sympathetic lead character, more originality, more pages, more story and more depth. (Sept. 9) Forecast: This is an "in between" book, with Grisham's next legal thriller due out in February. Print run is said to be two million copies-about 800,000 fewer than Grisham's legal thrillers, but still huge. The audio version of the book will be released on the same date as the print version, with Grisham doing the reading himself. Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

School Library Journal

Adult/High School-A small klatch of players on Messina High School's 1987 football team assembles on the bleachers of Rake Field, home of the winning Spartans, and named after their controversial coach. Eddie Rake was the bane and bounty of three decades of athletes, and now he is dying. His personality comes to life as his team members recollect what it was like to play for him. As they come to roost on the bleachers, they all have a story from the coach's school of hard knocks. This is especially true of all-American quarterback, Neely Crenshaw. Coping with setbacks, longing for an old flame, and trying to make sense of the impending passing of the man who pushed him to the brink but whom he ultimately eulogizes is Neely's lot, and, readers can hope, the beginning of better luck. Teens will jeer and cheer in the appropriate places as they keep turning the pages, and, like the flavorful characters, will gain understanding from the perspective of the stands.-Karen Sokol, Fairfax County Public Schools, VA Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

AudioFile