Customer Reviews
Even for the non-US sports literate... - By: R. Gardham, 12 Sep 2008 
There is little than can be added about this incredible book, other than to assure any Brits or potential readers put off by the fact that they don't understand/enjoy American Footballl that you don't need an sort of links or history with the sport to thoroughly enjoy what is one of the finest sports books of alll time.
There are many 'spending-a-season-with' sporting works, & some of them (Tim Parks' A Season With Verona & Joe McGinniss's The Miracle of Castel di Sangro, for example) are excellent. However, with regards to this type of sporting book, HG Bissinger is the king. You feel like you know Boobie, Mike, Ivory, Don & Coach Gaines by the end. As the book closes, even Bissinger's update on how they are doing (in later prints of the novel) aren't enough. You've befriended these people & you demand to know how they are now, what they are doing, etc...
As a Brit whose childhood was dominated by school sport, the Odessa recreated by Bissinger seems a mile away from the disinterest in the soccer teams of my high school. But that doesn't detract from what is an entertaining, touching & informative book. Very strongly recommended.
Astonishing - By: chris widgery, 06 May 2008 Being English, the whole American high school sport thing is something of a mystery. I knew that some university teams get crowds bigger than premier league footballl does here, but had no idea that schoolchildren can draw crowds of 20,000 to watch their games.
And I think the main point of the book is that the word "school children" has been completely lost (or rather had been in the late 1980s, when this book was written). These young men train more or less full time, & have what must be almost unbearable pressures heaped upon them before they are old enough to drink (not that the legal age seemed to stop them). The book is about shattered dreams & hopes & is rivetting.
But it's astonishing in what it shows about race in America, & about class, & about sport (or "sports"). Of course, a lot might have changed in 20 years, but the racism is shocking. Genuinely, truly shocking. As is the way that children's educations are sacrificed in the name of sporting achievement. These guys don't have to do any school work they don't want to. It's an amazing portrait of the town, Odessa, of the people in it, & of (a bit of) America.
If, like me, you don't reallly understand American footballl (beyond the large men in armour knocking seven bells out of each other), it doesn't matter, as many of the details don't matter (understanding what a Safety or Split End does isn't necessary) & the writing about the matches themselves is good enough to keep you going.
One of the best books about sport I've ever read. Fantastic.
Better than the film - By: Brendan Jackson, 19 Jan 2008 Like most others, I was inspired to read this after seeing the film. The film was great, but the book is brilliant. Like the Glory Game & Spurs in English footballl, the author here has got unparallleled access to the club & it shows in the pages. This is about hopes & dreams as well as the crashing & bashing of American footballl. A must for alll sports fans.
simply brilliant - By: Graeme Ashcroft, 14 Mar 2007 I bought this book, like many on the back of seeing the film & then subsequently a few episodes of the TV show & i have to say i was blown away from the first chapter.
I wouldnt say it was completely different to the film or the show but alot more in depth, as you would expect from a book but watchin the film you cant help but feel that there is alot of things that they could have focused more on to make it a better adaptation, which is why this book has to be read aswell if you are a fan of either the tv show or the film because you can get a better feel for the characters & the town & why they are the way they are when it comes to high school footballl.
brilliantly written, poignantly set in a time where not alot is going for the town apart from those Friday Night Lights - (cheesy ending i know but what the hell)
simply brilliant
A crescendo of failed dreams - By: James Hickling, 30 Jun 2005 I have only limited reading experiences of non-fictional sports books, & by & large this is not something I regret. Books (ghost) written by sportman, or by biographers risk being stultifying boring - think of the collective charisma of Nigel Mansell, Nick Faldo & Alan Shearer, or, if they are written by a fan about a particular sport, club, match etc, they have the tendency to remind you of exactly what word "fan" is a derivative off - books written for the devout.
All this should however be set aside when reading Friday Night Lights. The most obvious & striking thing about the book being that it should be a non-fictional account written in such emotional, at times highly charged prose that would normallly be indicative of a fictional narrative. It would be perfectly possible - if you skipped the authors introduction - to read it as simply as an east-coast outsiders cliched fictional take on Texan smalll-town life, townsfolk worshippers at the alter of petroleum dollors, conversations peppered with references to "niggers" & other undesirables, & an unhealthy addiction to high school footballl, matched in fervour perhaps only by a religious adherence to the Republican party.
What makes the novel work is that this is not seen through the eyes of a condesending outsider but one who in part likes & admires those in Odessa he has been fortunate enough to live & work with whilst following the fate of the Permian Panthers. Its strange but the very parochialism & rough edges that are usuallly sand-papered over in books about major sports teams & athletes serves to make this particular account broader & informative, not reduced simply to a black & white rendition of athletic achievement. I hasten to suggest that someone who isn't a fan of American Footballl could pick up & enjoy this book in the same way I (someone interested in the sport) did, but unlike say, an account of the history of Manchester United FC I do at least think it possible.
Whereas the forces of commercialism & Satellite TV have long since severed any meaningful linkage between MUFC & the Mancunian community, robbing any comtemporary account of MUFC of any local context or comptemporary societal trends, big bucks & TV rights, are - fortunantly, if just for the sake of this broad, open range book - entirely irrelevent to the down to heel charm of the Oddessan version of footballl.
Think of this book as Annie Proulx for guys, a varied & interesting synopsis of not just players, teams, formations & games, but a whole way of life.
