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Summary: Football or a Town?
Review: I did not like this book at all. I was expecting that this book would be more about the life of the people who played football, but not the town. the whole book was mianly about Odessa and its "imprtant history" I do not recommend this book to people who think they are going to read about football.
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Summary: great feel
Review: this book has a great feel to it. the author puts you in the locker room and on the field with the guys. i recommend it to any sports fan.
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Summary: tell me summary of this book
Review: I want you to tell me summarizing of this book. I've read once, but I could understand unperfectly.
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Summary: Wow
Review: After having read this book about 10-15 times over the years, I am still continually drawn back to the story of one year in Odessa, Texas.Whether you love sports or you hate them, this book will have something for you. While showing the common excesses often involved in sports, it also lets you feel elation and sorrow along with players you will get to know and like as well as the author did. I'm not sure what the Bissinger's intention was when he originally started this book but he writes with both stern disappointment in the emphasis given football in West Texas and genuine enjoyment of both the games of and the people involved with the 1988 Permian Panthers. This book both adores and scolds Texas high school football in such equal measure as to tell more about the reader's opinions of sports than those of H.G. Bissinger. Like seeing a great old movies, it is worth coming back to again and again.
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Summary: The truth to Odessa
Review: I am from Odessa Tx, and this book shows it as it is. The city of Odessa is made up of close to 100,000 people and they live and breath high school football. I lived in Odessa when this book was written and I know how it made us feel to hear that there would be a book written about one of our High Schools. I was also there when everyone found out what was written about the high school football team, but the one thing that hurt the most was he showed problems that the city of Odessa didn't think it had anymore. Making it look like we only carried about football and bringing out problems of the past. When you live in west Texas there is the only two things to look forward too. One is Friday night football games the other is another boom. While it shows how crazy a city can get over h.s. football, it never shows what it is like in a city after that one thing is taken away from us. But I do have to say the book was well written and makes me miss being home each year to see if they can find there way back to the state finals. If you want to see what football can do to a town or city in Texas this is a must read book. But don't judge the city of Odessa by this book.
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Summary: The best book i have ever read!
Review: The story is set in the small north Texas town of Odessa, it revolves around high school football and the effects it has on the people who live in Odessa. The year is 1988 and the Panthers are heavy favorites to win the state championship. Odessa is a football crazed town of about 25,000 people and the football stadium has a capacity of 18,000 people which is filled every other friday night. In Odessa football doesn't revolve around life, life revolves around football. The book deals with many other issues than football. This book deals with the players lives on and off the football field. This book also deals with the issue of racism, which is as evident in 1988 Odessa as it was in the 60's the only place that African-Americans are fully accepted is on the football field. The Panthers end up having a very sucessful 1988 and end up going far into the state playoffs. I would definetly recommend this book to any high school aged kid and to anyone with an interest in football.
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Summary: Good review of sports
Review: I read it a few years ago and thought it was a great synopsis of the "hype" of sports in America (and other parts of the world). I actually met a guy who played for Permian, and he affirmed everything the book said, and more. It's a shame that sports are put on such a pedestal at all levels. Yes, I think sports should continue in high school and college, but more emphasis should be put on academics. Currently the minimum requirement for playing interscholastic sports is a 2.0 average and a certain number of credits for high school, and 12.0 units in college sports. I think the GPA should be raised 2.5 or even 3.0, and the athletes can't just take "easy" classes, but the same ones everyone else has to take. Friday Night Lights is a good book for anyone who is a fan, current or former athlete, coach, or parent involved in sports on any level.
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Summary: Not just for football fanatics
Review: Friday Night Lights was one of the most entertaining and interesting books I have ever read. Its not just about football but how the town of Odessa, Texas lives and dies with every pass, run, and firstdown. Just to give you an idea, perhaps the most interesting part of the book was the discussion of the school budget, which showed some insane amount of money like $70,000 dollars spent on football to just $5,000 spent on the English department. This book is about much more than a football team, it is about the personalities that make a community.
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Summary: A MUST READ FOR LOVERS OF HIGH SCHOOL SPORTS
Review: I've just finished reading "Friday Night Lights" and only one word comes to mind - WOW! The book was so jam packed full of suspense and surprises. This book shows how easily a city can put its dreams on the shoulders of 17 year old kids and how wrong that is. As I read the last chapter I had to restrain myself from screaming at the players.... that is how real this book is. If you love high school sports this is the book for you.
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Summary: Searing
Review: FRINDAY NIGHT LIGHTS is a deeply disturbing book. It deserves a wide audience. While outwardly, football is the focus of the book, the books delivers a devastating critique not only of false dreams and hopes, but of class and racial devides. As I was reading FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS, I could not help comparing Odessa Permian with "Laketown High School"(Yorktown, West Chester NY), as portrayed in Richard Woodley's magnificent TEAM: A HIGH SCHOOL ODYSSEY (published in the early 1970s, and out of print). Like Bissinger, Woodley the journalist spent his time with "Laketown" football team. The contrast between Odessa and "Laketown" could not be more different. The difference? One can start off by the leadership and teaching roles of the two head coaches. The other factors, of course, is the role of football plays in various communities. Two weeks ago (August 1999), I drove by Odessa (it was hot and dusty) on my way back from San Diego, and I was reminded of the characters portrayed in the book: Boobie Miles (what are you doing now, Boobie?), the earnest QB with the wobbly pass, and the TE who went to Harvard.
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