Bleachers [Paperback]

A good stop gap till Mr Grisham gives us his next legal caper.

A few months ago, after forgetting about John Grisham for a while, I bought The Last Juror which reawakened my love of his books. Inevitably, I bought Bleachers, thinking that I would enjoy it despite the bad reviews from the non-Americans. They can't be die hard Grisham fans like myself, I thought.

I have to apologise to those who warned me - this book is just as pointless and impenetrable as I heard. The main character returns to his home town, after a fifteen year absence, to wait for his old high school football coach to die. The coach, it seems, has touched the lives of many men, a large proportion of whom meet up at the football field and sit in the bleachers, waiting for the inevitable.

What John Grisham is trying to do is well beyond that which can be achieved in such a short story. Neely, the main character, has very little to recommend him. He's just not been developed enough - we get little snatches of his life, his friends, his past loves but there's very little emotion evoked. I know that in a book about American football I shouldn't expect the characters to share their feelings at the drop of a hat but I did expect a wider range of emotions on Neely's part.

What we see is a town in mourning. The men that Neely commanded on the field seem shell shocked to a degree that doesn't fit in with the story.

Also, the plot is very weak. Nothing happens in this book to keep you turning the pages. There is a bit of suspence as to what happened between Neely and the coach during half time at one game in particular - a game we are given the full (!) commentary on.

If, like me, you have no idea about American Football, the commentary (which takes up several pages, mixed in with reactions from those listening) will test your patience. We know Neely was a great football player - we don't need the jargon.

All in all, I had to read it to believe it. Don't worry, though. If, like me, you just have to buy this to complete your Grisham collection, you won't spend too long reading it.

Bleachers is a short tale about the lives of american football players who have been touched by their coach, even after his pupils stop playing the game. Most of the plot is centred around Neely, the infamous All-American player who left his home town after a sporting injury, and only returning 15 years later to pay homage to his coach, who lays on his deathbed. Neely relives the character of the coach through meeting with former players and team mates on the bleachers of the playing fields, and we discover just how much the coach is admired - and hated - through his passion and dedication to the sport.

Half way through the novel, the old team of '87 meet and relive an historical game, that turns out to be the focal point of Neely's & the coach's careers. These 30 pages are a bizarre distraction to the natural discourse of the book, set out like a play with a commentary of the match intertwined. A clever piece of writing, but it made the book seem very disjointed.

The meagre 160+ pages only took me an evening to read. Even only a short way into the book, I did not believe that Bleachers was written by the same man who wrote the hits such as A Time To Kill, and The Firm. Bleachers is a 'nice' enough tale, but I feel it lacks any substance and the desire to turn the next page. I would not recommend Bleachers to someone who is expecting the next great legal crime novel - certainly not one that will be made into a film. If you are passionate about american football, then maybe this is the book for you. For me, I am happy for Bleachers to remain on my bookshelf gathering dust, and not get so excited about his newest novel next time...