"Bleachers" by John Grisham

Cafe Society
1

The story of Neely Crenshaw, a man approaching middle age returns to his hometown awaiting the expected death of his former high school football coach Eddie Rake.

No spoilers here, so there are many things in the book that make Coach Rake out to be a monster and a role model. Neely must figure this out and his life in general.

Spoilers likely in the thread, but, what is your opinion of Eddie Rake? Hero or monster?

For the purposes of debate, I think that he is the epitome of what we all strive to be: motivated but flawed…at the end of the day, I love Eddie Rake.

Very powerful book that touched me for some reason I can’t put a finger on.

Discuss.

2

I picked it up because I’d liked Grisham’s writing when he writes in his usual genre and I was curious to see what this was like. It was well-written (if anything, more personal-feeling and less formulaic than his legal thrillers) but I couldn’t make myself give a rat’s ass about Eddie Rake one way or the other. I just don’t have the common ground to appreciate.