A small-town fictional drama about a beloved football coach on his deathbed, whose decades of influence and power over the town’s children is seen to have varying consequences.
Eddie Rake is the local football coach in Messina: a town known for its fanatical enthusiasm for high school football. The man brought the team to glory in the sixties, and since then has maintained a steady record of immense success. All the young athletes wanted to impress him, get a place on his team, and then become local legends themselves.
One local legend, and lead character, Neely Crenshaw, is back in town for the dying days of Rake. On the night he comes back into Messina, he heads to the bleachers of the football stadium where he was once hailed as a prodigy, and he finds other former players from across the decades, also holding small vigils for the beloved coach.
Through anecdotes, memories, and myths, we slowly learn more about this marvellous character of Eddie Rake; his status amongst the town, and how his lessons on the field have shaped the lives of the players off it, for better and worse.
An entertaining little read, the book has some brilliant pieces of dialogue between the players on the bleachers; showing their nostalgic, sentimental sides, whilst feeling some kind of emotion about the passing of their role model/father figure. The negative aspects to Rake’s coaching: such as the ferocious running drills, and endless demand for good results, make the most engaging parts. Furthermore, it is the slowly unravelled argument between Neely and his coach that becomes the book’s main plotline, which was well timed and developed by Grisham.
In places, the story becomes a little too sentimental, and players lose their intrigue once they recount the thousandth story about Eddie Rake, but for the most part, Bleachers is a telling portrayal of the effect of role models during growing up, and Grisham’s attention to the small details make the book touching and enjoyable.
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