Bleachers explores the hometown of Messina, a college town where one coach "ruled" for a long time. That would be Eddie Rake, who was known for winning championships and being hard on players. Neely Crenshaw, a quarterback who played for a few years has arrived back in town for the first time in years when the news of the Coach's impending death reaches him. He isn't the only one, many players flock back to reminisce and wait for his death. They all have their own stories and memories of the coach too.
Neely Crenshaw, the main narrator is not very likable at all. In fact, I thought he was selfish and completely unrelatable. I didn't care about his sad little life and his regrets at all, which made this book even harder to read. The other players were a little better, but really, it was just a bunch of guys swapping football stories that probably only they would care about. The Coach too was a hard character to like, but at least he was supposed to be that way.
Ok, so I don't like football, but as said before I like heartwarming underdog stories. This one just didn't do it for me. The pace was very slow, the characters unlikable, and the stories they told really didn't hold any interest. And in a way it was kind of morbid the way they were waiting for someone to die. As my first experience with Grisham I have to say that it kind of makes me hesitate to read anything else by him, which is a shame because he has written a lot of books that sounded interesting. About the only thing I did like this book was that it was short, and I guess I can see why football fans would like it, so I rated it higher than one star as a result.
Not my type of read at all. I won't be touching Grisham for awhile as a result.
Bleachers
Copyright 2003
229 pages
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