Bleachers

Bleachers by John Grisham 240 pages

Ah, Friday night football. Just like the fictional town of Messina in Grisham’s book, my hometown in Arkansas lived and breathed Friday night high school football (and Saturday afternoon Razorback games).

This is more than a novel about football. It is a novel about teamwork, motivation, forgiveness and remembrance.

The story centers (no pun intended) on Neely Crenshaw who fifteen years ago was an All-American quarterback. This is his first trip back to his hometown since he left for college. His old coach, Eddie Rack, is dying. Neely has gone back to wait. It is time for him to come to terms with the past and decided if he loved Coach or hated him and if he can forgive him. Neely does not go to sit with Coach, or even stop by house. He is there because the past has pulled him back, and he has a special job to do that isn’t revealed until the end.

Messina hired Coach Rake when he was only twenty-eight years old. He had a hard job in front of him to get a bunch of uninspired, out-of-shape teenage boys ready to win.

Neely heads to the football field to wait for Coach to pass. There he is joined by some of his old teammates. There they reminiscence about the glory days of their high school years, Coach, Coach’s record, and each other.

Readers get to know Coach through the boys-now-men recollections, good and bad.

Author Grisham does an excellent job in doling out information and keeping the story tight and suspenseful. It takes place over four days as the boys-now-men begin to arrive to pay their last respects to a man who changed their lives. I did get a little bored when the listened to an old tape of a life-changing game. It went on a tad too long in my play book. Therefore “Bleachers” receives 4 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world.