Reflections on a bygone era. Review on Bleachers - John Grisham

I have been a long time fan of John Grisham, being a lawyer myself. I have always looked forward to curling myself with his book and he has never let me down. His books have a certain amount of thematic consistency, the recurrent theme being an underdog hero fighting uphill legal duels to battle wrongs, in the process, brings out the tragic flaws in the American legal system.

I picked up the latest offering of Grisham, ? Bleachers? in the hope of filling my time with a thrilling legal yarn. I was quite surprised to see that Grisham has struck a new path, leaving the tried and tested courtroom sagas. It is one of the characteristics of a successful and confident author that he can venture into new genres and still hold the reader?s attention. In fact, I never knew earlier that Grisham writes on topics unrelated to law.

The book is quite a small one, about 182 pages, some change from the usual thick tomes, which flow from his pen. You see the differences from the usual Grisham starts here evidently. The cover photograph is eye catching with a portion of a stadium with the floodlights on. The book is published by Arrow Books and is being distributed in India by Rupa & Co. The book will set you back by Rs 195.

Now that you have the book in your hand, I will take you through a slow-guided tour through it. The book is about Neely Crenshaw, a high school All-American who was probably the best quarterback to play for the Messina Spartans. The story is set in Messina, the very archetype of a small town American town that has nothing to boast about except of its formidable American football team. The town is obsessed by football to say the least and their joys and sorrows of the inhabitants are inextricably linked with the fortunes of the team.

Eddie Rake, a martinet if that could be a polite word to describe him, coaches the team, Messina Spartans. He coaches the team with a maniacal intensity with a motto of success at all costs, which gets him success. He spurs them to greater heights and the team is unstoppable winning everything in sight. Like all good things, the heady days of Rake?s helmsman ship of the team comes to an end due to a combination of circumstances, which takes an inexorable and tragic turn. In a tragic incident, one of the trainees under Rake, Scotty Reardon dies collapsing due to the strain of training for which Rake gets blamed for the death. As a result, he gets sacked from the post of Head Coach. This all happens about 15 years back circa 1987.

Fifteen years later, Neely Crenshaw revisits those old playing grounds and tries to recapture the past days of glory, which are forever lost. His attitude towards his fame and to the game is ambivalent, he does not know whether football has made or destroyed his life. He visits Messina when he has been told that Eddie Rake is on his deathbed, fighting a losing battle with Cancer.

Crenshaw, at his height of his popularity makes some wrong decisions whose consequences haunt him .He is a broken man since he gets his knee busted in a football game in college which ends his football career. He marries a girl who deserts him early, his career is in ruins and the world around him is slowly disintegrating. He is on mission to find himself and come in terms with his relationship with his coach.

As a sub plot, he has a longing to visit Cameron Lane, his lost love and seek her forgiveness for what he had done many years back. I will not be revealing the plot more than this, you should read and find it for yourself.

A few words on the structuring of the book would not be out of place, so I seek a few more minutes from you. The craft of the author is evident when you see that Rake is an invisible presence in the entire book and his entire character is described in third person singular despite this fact, he is a looming presence throughout the book.

The book is about self-introspection, nostalgia and longing, it will prompt you to do a self-introspection and make you think whether your so-called past glories are really that or just one of those things, which have no meaning after efflux of time. John Grisham pulls out one more rabbit out of his hat.