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Book Review of Bleachers

Bleachers
reviewed on + 11 more book reviews


John Grisham takes a break from usual lawyer-in-peril thrillers to write a story about high school football and its effect on the people involved in it. Messina is a small town in an unnamed southern state where the football field holds more people than the town population. The tough-as-nails coach, Eddie Rake, drove his boys hard to win state championships and the hero worship and extra privileges that come with it. The coach is now on his deathbed, and his old players come back to Messina to say goodbye and relive memories of those days. It's a look at how a single-minded obsession and hero worship at a young age can affect many lives. Bleachers has received mixed reviews from "engaging little novel" (USA Today) to a "moribund and misbegotten little novel" (Entertainment Weekly).