Rating: 
Summary: Bissinger is a liar
Review: The only reason that I give it a five is because it is aboutPermian. Otherwise, it deserves a 0. I am an alumnus of Permian HighSchool, and I have read Friday Night Lights several times. Bissinger wrongly portrays Permian to have cheated their way into all of the honors it has received. That is in no way the truth. Permian only has one mark on their record, while there are several schools throughout the state of Texas who have been repremanded by UIL on more than one occasion. When the movie comes out, I think that people will see just exactly what MOJO and Permian are all about. It is not money.
Rating: 
Summary: The truth hurts
Review: It's been a while since I last read FNL (A friend stole my copy of the book and left town.), but I was born and raised in Odessa. And I was there at the time chronicled in the book. When Bissinger came to town doing research for his book, the football fanatics all assumed he would be writing a glorious tale of football dominance and gladly extended all that small town hospitality. However, when the book came out, people realized that he had seen beneath the surface of our backwards little burg and pulled some dirty skeletons out of our collective closet on a national stage. When he came to do book singings in the area, hospitality quickly turned to death threats. But that book was exactly what the entire town needed... a cool, refreshing glass of water thrown in our face.
Rating:
Summary: this book gets better with each reading
Review: Growing up in west Texas and playing football and always hearing about Permian becomes a way of life. It' like teams sit around on Friday afternoons and think about they will be immortalized if they could win. This book opens doors to dreams that everybody has and few achieve, winning championships. This book tells of a team that can not stand to lose, and that will do whatever it takes to with hold the dynasty of Permian football. Bissinger tells of how some of the players don't have anything in life but football, and how life can change in the blink of an eye. I know of many lives that have changed due to the contents of this book. Everyone shold read it!
Rating:
Summary: Lights shine bright on Texas
Review: Bissinger does a masterful job of narrating the journey of a town and team through the trials of life in west Texas. Although high school football is the focus, the author intricately weaves in a dialogue on race and politics, highlighting the historical aspect of these socially compex issues. Interestingly enough, Bissinger indicts Texans on various counts without ever passing judgement. Furthermore, he implies the lack of proirites are not only prevalent in Texas, but throughout our "sports crazed" society. A worthwhile read for all!
Rating:
Summary: A compelling and emotional book
Review: As I began to read this book, I began to notice a similarity between this high school's football team and my own high school's football team. I am not that avid of a football fan, but as I read this book, I found myself growing a greater respect for the sport as well as the players involved in the game. This book takes you on the journey of one teams losses, and victories, and the importance and impact this sport has on the community as a whole. I found this book quite hard to put down, and highly recommend it to all teenagers. It was a simple reading book packed with loads of information including entertaining and emotional. I give this book 10 thumbs up!!
Rating:
Summary: This book changed my life
Review: I found this book totally by accident. I am a New Yorker born and raised. I am from an area where football does not get as much attention as other city games like baseball or basketball. In the fall of 1990 I found myself in a small bookstore in an even smaller college town in Texas. As I was killing time waiting for my girlfriend to register for classes I picked up this book and didn't put it down until it was finished. I never thougt there was anybody out there with the same love for the game as me. After reading this book I realized that I may have been lucky to not have to grow up in a town where a high school sport means so much. But then again I have to admit that I was extremely jealous of all the things I missed out on never having the chance to be a part of something so special. After reading this book I made some life decisions such as following up on my impulse feelings. Every year since I have taken atleast one trip to a major high school football game. This has allowed me to travel all acroos the country doing what I truly love to do. Which is evaluate high school talent and really absorb myself into the culture that is high school football. This book may have had a hand in saving a dead end kid from the Bronx with a love for the game only matched by the size of the state of Texas.
Rating:
Summary: Lights puts into words what few can ever understand
Review: Having grown up in West Texas, and having interviewed Gary Gaines as a reporter for my high school paper, when he coached at our rival high school, Abilene High School, I can find no better book regarding football in this part of the world. However, this book is about much more than football. By using the extremities of Odessa and football, it helps expose the root of racial and social problems in American society. This book is a good read--on any level.
Rating:
Summary: American Dream as Seductive Lie
Review: Live with the dust, lost jobs, and brooding consciousness of a Texas city down on its luck. When things seem like they will get no bleaker, experience the euphoric pride collectively exploding from 20,000 fans rooting for the Permian High football team on a friday night. After this
adreneline fueled flight into the rarified atmosphere of misguided hopes, prepare to come crashing down to the world of dashed dreams, lost purpose, and the inevitability of the Uncertain Future. ---- Bissinger weaves a powerful, yet true narrative which documents both the joys and pains of a city psychically connected with one of its high school football teams. He shows how football, much like the boom and bust turmoil of Odessa's own economy, holds out dazzling promises -- only to snatch them away in unguarded moments. Here you will meet vulnerable yet determined kids who willfully give their mental and physical souls to a sports program run amok. This is not only an indictment of one city's obsession with school sports, it is an exemplar of the American Dream as a seductive lie. ---- *Friday Night Lights* takes readers into the locker room, all right -- but in those confines it defines the bankrupt nature of our nation's obsession with instant heroes and the allure of winning at all costs. At the same time, the book manages to convey the seductive power of high school football by re-creating it, coaxing and then shoving the reader into the frenzied excitement. You will never fully understand how awfully and frightfully "American" the game of football can be until you read this exceptional book. (Soon to be a motion picture directed by Ron Howard, if I understand correctly)
Rating:
Summary: Outstanding!
Review: This book was simply a masterpiece. It brought out the emotion of the game of football, the players, and the town that supports the game and the players. At times I found myself thinking I was really back in the locker room getting ready for a game. This was just an outstanding book
Rating:
Summary: Simply one of the finest sports chronicles ever
Review: When I first picked up this book, on my lunch break, I arbitrarily flipped to a page in the middle and started reading. I became so engrossed in it that I was late getting back to work from my lunch break. Such is the superb quality of writing that Bissinger brings to this book. Friday Night Lights is about the Permian High School Panthers football team in the 1988 season. In Odessa, TX, they only "have two things - football and oil, and there ain't no more oil." Carried on the adolescent shoulders of the black-clad Panthers are the hopes, dreams, aspirations, and societal well-being of an entire community. The book focuses on the intense scrutiny and pressure placed on the players, coaches, and even families associated with the program. After a tough loss, the head coach can expect to have his house vandalized, his family verbally assaulted, and calls made for his firing. The student population of Permian is predominantly white, but the few black players imported from Odessa's poor, mostly black, south side are some of the team's most successful players. The book highlights the contrast in the white, wealthy suburban area Permian is located in against the older section of Odessa, populated mostly by blacks and Hispanics. The book also profiles several of the team's star players. Some live for every single moment they can wear the Panthers uniform, while others are conflicted at having to play in such a pressure-cooker environment. Some are the lucky sons of Odessa's richest residents, bound for Ivy-League schools, while others come from painful poverty and broken homes. Odessa is portrayed as an entire city of broken dreams, devastated by the downturn in the oil industry where unemployment is high and crime higher. What holds the community together is the Friday Night Lights at Ratliff Stadium, where the Panthers do battle not only for team and school pride, but for the pride of an entire community and people. I cannot recommend this book more highly.
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