Sporty read! enjoyable,heartwarming,well developed characters with good storytelling..recommend (paperback!)74 s Paul Weiss1,319 358

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 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 Weissgeneral-fiction51 s4 comments W1,185 4

I doubt if American football is a sport I'd to watch live.To me,it is a bunch of guys falling in a heap and breaking each other's bones.

I was,therefore,surprised how much I enjoyed this book.This is good storytelling by Grisham.A high school football coach is about to die,and the players he trained,reminisce about him,and the old days.The coach hadn't made it easy for them.

For a Grisham book,this is pretty short.
It was almost as if I was sitting in the bleachers,cheering for that high school football team,which had such a tough taskmaster as a coach.grisham26 s Jane Stewart2,462 906

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.

REVIEWERÂ’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. HeÂ’s not happy. HeÂ’s resigned to life.

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

DATA:
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.football-fiction22 s1 comment Lynda66 3

Couldn't put it down. And it makes you think about how people influence you and how strong a bond is between coaches and players. This was excellent.19 s Sumit RK838 515

A High school football star comes back to his hometown to bid farewell to his dying coach. The book is about group of friends reminiscing the glory days of playing together and their relationship with their coach.
Word of caution : The book is centered around American football and their recollections of their memorable games (incl a long play by play commentary of 1 particular game). So if you have no idea about the game, you will find it annoying after a point.
Sadly,the relationship between the coach and the players and the players themselves is never fully explored and the emotional ending at the end feels totally flat. Overall 2/5
17 s Lois250 23

I do own Grisham books, but only because family members keep buying them for me on birthday's and xmas's. I smile politely and thank them, wishing they would include the receipt. I have read this, and i don't recommend it unless you are 10 years old and want to start reading adult fiction. Dull, dull, dull. How this man is a best-selling writer is reflection of today's society's IQ.lobagsbooks15 s Kevin737 7

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 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.14 s Brad CarlAuthor 14 books196

I've had this book for a long time, probably since it was released in 2003. I knew it was about football and didn't expect it to be fast-paced or action-packed. It's not a John Grisham thriller, for sure. Overall, it's a nice story. Kind of dark, maybe a bit anticlimactic. But at the same time, it has a nice message that anybody who has ever played youth sports should be able to understand. 11 s Aitor CastrilloAuthor 2 books1,031

Me gustan los libros y me gustan el deporte. Por adición... me gustan los libros de deporte. Grisham se aleja de los juzgados para llevarnos al funeral de un entrenador de fútbol americano reuniendo a sus ex-jugadores que irán recordando sus días de gloria y sueños robados. Sé que no soy objetivo, pero me pareció especial. 11 s Mat?ss Mint?ls180 36

Dr?ma par t?mu, k? skarbais t?ls paties?b? liek jums ciest t?p?c, ka v?l jums labu. Ritt?g stingrs piecinieks par meistar?gu spiešanu uz j?t?m.american drama life10 s Amanda Patterson896 286

It must be boring to have to churn out a novel a year just because youÂ’re a best-selling author. This ennui can be the only excuse for GrishamÂ’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 stadiumÂ’s lights to dim and signal his passing.

Things have changed in his hometown of Messina. When he was a boy, there wasnÂ’t a place to buy an espresso. Now, everythingÂ’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 RakesÂ’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 IÂ’ve read. What a pity that a fine suspense author had to put all of his fans through this horrible ordeal.10 s Terence M - [Quot libros, quam breve tempus!]564 296

Read in 2016, I think this "dnf-maybe-try-again" didn't appeal because of its American Football theme, but I honestly cannot remember! :) Safe to say I am unly to 'try it again'!a-dnf-maybe-try-again10 s Charity632 544

Holy majoly! I was so glad this book was short! It was lame-o.

Imagine the movie Varsity Blues, then add about 15 years with the full cast of characters coming back to town because the death of the former coach is imminent. That is the plot summary in a nutshell.

Cheeeesy.8 s Christina91 18

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. alexsbookshelf fictionread7 s Veronica F355 6

Let me start by saying I judge books by their covers. I don't spend the time to read the summary, I look at them and say yes or no. I said yes to Bleachers. I gave it a 3 star...

The writing is good, it flowed and kept me engaged enough to finish. I did not realize it was a book about football. I hate football, I don't understand it and I don't care about it or its players. I normally would have just moved on, but I d the writing. I finished it, but did skim a few paragraphs here and there. I have no interest to ever read it again.

If you're into football or sports in general, it's worth a read.random7 s Eddie OwensAuthor 7 books54

This is a novella or a short story, not a novel.

When you're a best selling novelist you can get anything published.

This is a homage to those American high school coaches who inspired their teams. Nothing new or interesting here.

Listen to "Glory Days" by Springsteen and he says more on this subject in three minutes than Grisham does in 180 pages.This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.Show full review6 s Belmin Zvekic4

The book “Bleachers was a wonderful book to show you the positive and negatives of life when high school football is the main point. It also has a wonderful picture of what happens when you let an accident control your life. The coach showed me that there are people that you will consistently think about even with a bad situation. Everyone in life needs a person to help them with pushing yourself to get better more than we would push ourselves. If you decide to check out this book, you'll find the person who is your motivation. A weakness in this book is that there isn't really a situation in where something really exciting happens, most of it is sad. I would recommend this book to a classmate because it focuses on the outlook of life and everything that can occur. If this book was part of a series, I would continue to read it because its very interesting on how it is set up with everything happening very quickly. I would to see how the team and everyone around would handle the whole situation. 6 s Jay Schutt267 109

A nice, quick-reading story of a star quarterback and some of his teammates who return home, after several years, to honor the death of their legendary coach. Most have a love/hate relationship to deal with. A departure from the usual Grisham legal novels.fiction5 s Ana Paula Nunes41 97

Ainda estou tentando entender como um livro de 186 páginas de conversas entre jogadores de futebol americano me prendeu tanto rsrs
Mas é o Grisham, né?

Claro que o livro é mais do que futebol americano. É como se Salomão estivesse personificado em jogadores que tiveram todo o holofote e sucesso. Estou vendo Eclesiastes em tudo? Com que frequência? O tempo todo!
Como não?

Tudo é vaidade, fumaça... correr atrás da bola.
Digo, vento.

5 s Dele Haynes218 14

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. 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 un 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.5 s Pablo DonetchAuthor 6 books59

Para los que quieran conocer a John Grisham, El Último Partido no es un buen libro. Escapa completamente de su línea principal. Narra la biografía de un entrenador de fútbol americano y de como influye en la historia de un pueblo completo, todo desde la perspectiva de los habitantes del pueblo, de sus pupilos y de una joven promesa que vió frustada su carrera por una lesión inesperada.
Es una buena novela, corta, simpática. A veces conmueve con su nostalgia, pero nada que cambie la vida. Es una historia muy gringa, difícil de entender y de empatizar para los que no conocemos el fanatismo por el fútbol americano.5 s Adam221 129

Quick easy read (had to pick something for entering the Valentine's Day 'win a box of chocolates' contest, hey I'll do most things for chocolate).

The gay guy (and cafe bookshop owner)and the journey and transformation of the hero coach (man Yanks are so obsessed with high school football, Friday Night Lights?) at the end was pretty good.

The unrequited love interest was a lil bit of a tear jerker too but aren't they all? Unrequited love is the worst.

Moral of story: if you're in a small town, get out of there and don't come back! They're shitholes. 2003published 4stars fiction ...more4 s Victoria 113 10

Una veta diferente de Grisham que desconocía. No me ha enganchado lo suficiente porque sinceramente de fútbol americano no entiendo mucho y jamás este deporte podría tocarme fibra sensible alguna. De todos modos, he aprendido algunas cosas y no ha sido tan pesado. Se agradece la brevedad para los que no nos moviliza este deporte.4 s Shaun426

It was ok. Not one of Grisham's best works. I'd probably it more if I were more in to high school football.4 s M. Swan100

Not your typical Grisham book, and thatÂ’s not a bad thing. If one has no interest in or understanding of football, some of this story may be a bit dry, but try to get past that and focus on the meat of this story.3 s BarbaraW438 15

A little short novel centering on small town hs football. Grisham nails it again. YouÂ’re there. You feel the mental and physical pains. If you grew up in a small town youÂ’ll get it. 3 s Tim Taylor177 5

Somewhere out there is someone who heard that John Grisham was a great author, chose this as their first book of Grisham's to read, and remains confused about the hype.

This book has all the mental complexity of "See Spot Run." If anyone else submitted this for publication, it would have been turned down by any reputable publisher. a) The story lacks a plot of any sort. b) When the writer turned lazy, he turns a conversation between players almost into bullet points. ie, Neely: Hello. Paul: What a game. Silo: We were great. Neely: Yes we were. And so on. Then before long, back to typical prose, ie, Neely saw his old friend Paul and said, "Hello." c) The only real "mystery" involved is highly predictable and can be seen from early in the novel.

A number of inconsistencies involve he main character, Neely Crenshaw:
1) Crenshaw hates Coach Rakes but returns to be in town when Rakes passes away. Not to see Rakes, just to be in town. A town where has no ties. No friends that he's called in advance. And then to attend the funeral of a man he has hated.
2) Crenshaw's only tie to the town was his old teammate Paul Curry. The book says that he isn't close to Paul, but he still phones him 3-4 times per year. Well, if I talked to someone long distance on the phone that often, I'd know an awful lot about the person. And yet, Crenshaw had to ask how many kids Paul had.
3) Crenshaw doesn't want to relive his high school glory days as the All-American star quarterback. He avoids talking to people about it, but shows up unannounced at the old stadium on consecutive nights. He listens to an old audio-broadcast of one of their championship games. He recites the plays to his teammates as if the game happened yesterday.
4) Despite the aforementioned hatred of Coach Rakes and the promise to never return, Crenshaw sits front and centre at the funeral.
5) This may not be an "inconsistency" in writing so much, but it is truly unbelievable that after having broken up with a girl more than half his lifetime ago, he feels the need to profess an "I love you" to a girl he hasn't spoken to since he was sixteen years old.

200 pages, large font, small words, and I feel insulted for shelling out almost seven dollars for this crap.physical-copy3 s Jared Kraemer1 review

“Bleachers” is a very good and inspiriting story. It made me think what my life will be in the future when I’m done playing football. I could relate to it in many ways and some of the things John Grisham wrote about in “Bleachers” i have actually seen or heard about in my life time. "Bleachers" by John Grisham is about the legendary Messina Spartans football team and Coach Rake's team coming back to their home stadium and saying there last good-byes to Eddie Rake. Eddie Rake was the meanest and hardest coach throughout Spartan history but is the man who caused the Messina Spartans to be the best football team in history. While Coach Rake was slowly dying the boys got together in the bleachers and would talk about all the old games and memories they remembered and what they went through. Some memories were good and others were bad, but by the end of the night they would end up realizing what a great man and coach Eddie Rake was. He led them to many victories and state Championships and got them prepared for their future life. During the funeral, High school all-American Neely Crenshaw was probably the best quarter back to Rake and Crenshaw realized a lot once he heard some words from his old Coach. Neely Crenshaw is now a man who is all grown up and must finally forgive his coach and himself with the incidents they had in life before he can get his life back on track.This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.Show full review3 s Courtney Bach 145 1 follower

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