Friday Night Lights: A Town, a Team, and a Dream

Rating:
Summary: Not great sportswriting. Great literature.
Review: Friday Night Lights is much more than a book about a high-school football team. It's an indictment of the U.S. public-school system, an unnecessarily snide look at the Reagan era's domestic effects, and an unbelievably frank discussion of racism in America. The black-white relations of Odessa, Texas, are by are the most compelling part of an engrossing book. Bissinger shows himself to be one of our most perceptive people-watchers, and he mercifully keeps himself entirely out of the story, a difficult feat considering how he immersed himself into the life of Permian High School and its football team for an entire school year. You don't have to care about football to enjoy this book immensely.

Rating:
Summary: Old football players read this
Review: The book that the teeny-bopper film Varsity Blues is based off of, this is a must read for any former high school football player that played in a traditionally strong football program. Bissinger vividly and realistically paints a picture of what it is like to be an immortalized 18-year football star. Although he is sometimes wordy in his accounts of menial details, like the West Texas oil industry, his segments on football are amazingly accurate and allow someone who has never experienced it firsthand to see the work, emotion, bond, and joy from the sport at the high school level. Many times I found myself taken back to the locker room, experiencing those magical nights that grown men dream about once more

Rating:
Summary: One of the best (and most truthful) books I've read
Review: I found Friday Night Lights to be one of the most truthful and well written books ever. I have played football in Texas, and have seen how it is a religious institution, and how players become "untouchables," gods in themselves. The author had me literally dreaming of playing just one more day. Plus Bissinger's journalistic style flows perfectly with the context. He sifts through not only the game, but the emotions, the politics, and devotion, not only towards football, but also the social implications based in an entire town. The author strays as far as to examine racial tension and its relationship to what happens on the field. Bissinger sums up the monsterous impact something so small can have on a persons life, particualrily if it is deified. This is a must read for all, not just for football fans. If you remotely liked "Varsity Blues," you will love this book. Personally, after reading this novel I fell in love with the Permian Panther mystique, Mojo.

Rating:
Summary: ONE OF THE BEST!!!
Review: I don't read many books. Newspapers and magazines take up most of my reading time. But after reading the first chapter, I was hooked like I have never been hooked before. Not just a story about high school football, but a gut wrenching story of life in a small Texas town. After reading this book I would love to visit Odessa and would be honored to go to a Friday night game.

Rating:
Summary: A Taste of Inspiration
Review: A Taste of Inspiration In the small town of Odessa, Texas there is a tradition to uphold at all times. Anyone who loves football with a passion knows what kind of inspiration H.G. Bissenger shows in this book. Friday Night Lights is a prime example of the camaraderie and competitiveness that West Texas football has to offer. Bissenger tells about the actual feeling of the players on the field with the use of a simile. He states how the sight of thousands of people in the stands is like a shot of adrenaline to a player's heart. It is an inspiration to anyone who loves the fact that an entire town can rally behind one team as they do in this book. It is awe-inspiring to realize the actual work and dedication the whole community puts toward the high school football team. In the book itself, Bissenger describes the parish board arranged for a 747 to fly willing citizens to a game 200 miles away in Marshall, Texas. Just the fact that someone would think about a plan of that nature is inspiring to all. Every player on the team, whether they saw the field or not, knew that they had a tradition to keep, a reputation to uphold. Although players were not getting their fair share at the field, Permian did have some letdowns. Bissenger shows a sign of foreshadowing when all-state running back, Boobie Miles, injures his knee in a simple jamboree before his senior year. Bissenger is hinting that Miles will miss the rest of the season and may never play football again. If you were a member of the "MOJO" which was nickname for the Permian High School football team, you were treated with the utmost respect and dignity. The community has banquets and meals for the players on different occasions. The people of Odessa have been taught to realize what they are witnessing and to take in every moment of it. Not only does Bissinger show the inspiration of the people towards the team, but he also inspires the reader to reach for bigger and better things. Everyone knows that when Friday night comes around the entire county will be "inspired" to root on their "MOJO".

Rating:
Summary: Forget the football, this is an excellent life story...
Review: Probably like everyone else, I bought this book expecting to read about the Texas high school football tradition, but instead learned a little more about how athletics are overemphasized at the high school level. My current town in Texas has had recent success (4 state titles in the 90's)in high school football and I hope we're never the subject of a story like this (I've seen the football program grow from nothing [not a single win in the '85 season] to the "State" level)...all high school administrations should somehow be made to re-read this book every year. That being said, this is an excellent book and Bissinger is to be commended for writing an honest account when it would have been easy to get caught up in the emotion...highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: A Remarkable Story
Review: In "Friday Night Lights" author H.G. Bissinger does a wonderful job of capturing the story of a Texas high school football team. He chronicles the team, its coaches, and fans, virtually giving the reader an insider's look at big time high school football. But this is not a football book. Insead, Bissinger gives us an honest summary of how a town, and its people, invest all of their emotions on the ups and downs of its football team, and placing undue stresses and strains on 17 and 18-year-olds. I'm sure the people of Odessa, Texas, were not happy with this book, but it is honest and very hard to put down. Highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: The Truth
Review: Bissinger captured the reality of Permian High School very well. If you ever meet a PHS alumnus, he will probably tell you this book is a pack of vicious lies. It is the absolute truth. Bissinger lived in Odessa for about a year doing research for this book. The town thought they would be glorified. Instead, they were exposed. Most Odessans felt that Bissinger betrayed them. What he did was write exactly what he saw. How do I know, you ask? I graduated from Permian High School in 1993. I highly recommend this book. It gives a startlingly real picture of what many American teenagers deal with on a daily basis. It's not pretty, but it's the truth.

Rating:
Summary: More than football
Review: This book uses football as a backdrop in a story of economics, politics, and race issues among other things. Through this football book you learn about the oil boom and bust in the 80s, politics in the case of getting someone a passing grade to play football, and racism on many levels. Bissinger writes in very understandable form, with great analogies and fluidity. This is an easy flowing book that touches on every subject in the town of Odessa and its football rivals, you can't go wrong with this book.

Rating:
Summary: Growing Up In Odessa, Texas
Review: Much to the regret of those citizens loyally remaining/liveing in Odessa, this book is produced. It accurately reproduces the sociological life and aspects of Odessans and their seasonal obsession, high school football. But it also vividly points out the prejudices and perils of growing up in a predominantly politically conservative area of Texas whereas excellance in academics was not a major focus of the Ector County Independant School District. I would know, I grew up there from 1960 to 1972. I re-lived the past with each turn of each page of Bissinger's outstanding and accurate account of West Texas and it's associate sociological consequences for it's youth. "Friday Night Lights, a Town, a Team, and a Dream" is a very accurate recording of life the way it actually was and to some extent, remains today in a town still in academic dire straits in West Texas. Take it from someone whos been through this and experienced all of those "Friday Night Lights" for 12 straight years, firsthand.