In the state of Texas American football is a religion. And nowhere is more fanatical about its football than the small town of Odessa. There, every Friday night from September to November, a bunch of seventeen-year-old kids play their hearts out for the honour of their high school. In front of 20,000 people.
In 1988 H.G. Bissinger spent a season in Odessa discovering just what makes a town pin … town pin its hopes on eleven boys on a football field. He lived with the students, coaches and townspeople who dedicate their lives to their team, sharing their joys and triumphs, their pains, injuries and bitter disappointments. He returned with a compassionate but hard-eyed story of a town riven by money, race and class, where a high school can spend more on medical supplies for its athletic program than on its English department.
Friday Night Lights is one of the best books about sport ever written. It is the story of how dreams and reality collide, at once glorious and immensely sad. Because for the 30-odd boys of the Permian Panthers, these days will have been the best of their lives.
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This is another one of my top 10 favorite books ever. While a lot of people were introduced to FNL through the show, this came first. I was introduced to this book in college as part of a sociology lesson. It’s the perfect marriage of sports reporting and nonfiction story telling. It’s about racism, expectations, disappointments, poverty, wealth, …
For lovers of football, the series of the same name – and vaguely inspired by the true story – is the best tv series of all time. The original book which looked at one fateful season in a small town where high school football was a religion is a godsend. Capturing not only the power of football, but the time, place and politics of a changing …
Not a book I would read again
My husband and I watched the complete TV series of FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS this summer. We hadn’t ever watched it while it was actually on television but I love sports books and movies so decided to give it a chance. We both loved the series and the characters. The television show is NOTHING like the book.
Also, …
Groundbreaking examination of a working-class town through the lens of a high school football team. There’s a reason this story is critically acclaimed not only as a book but as a movie and TV show as well. It’s that good. One of my favorite non-fiction books of all-time.
This is the story of the Permian football team in Odessa Texas. They are the winning-est high school football team in Texas history. The book follows the year long journey of the 1988 football team. The author moved to Odessa with his family so that he could be engrossed in the local culture and really get to know the team, coaches, and the …
Outstanding! This book also made into a tv miniseries. Inside the locker room, outside the locker room, in the supposed sanctity of home, this masterful drama follows a revered high school football team in Odessa.