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: Superb. Get in shape to read it - you play the game, also.
Review: You will love it or leave it. You will appreciate if not understand what "MoJo" is. If you're still reading after the first chapter, find a comfortable spot - it's hard to put down. My fourteen year old daughter bought this book for me but I couldn't wrestle it away from her until she read it first (which didn't take long). Keep in mind that Bissinger wrote this book using his personal biases, perceptions and opinions. I found no fault with his interpretations of the issues and facts as presented other than the racial issue was not as severe from my personal experience. If you have kids playing football (or any competitive sport), if you played high school football, if you are a coach or if you just love high school football - this is must reading. I'll leave it at that. You form your own opinion, but you will appreciate the game in a different "light". I was born in Odessa at the same time Hayden Fry was playing there. I know all the "characters" in the book, although by different names. Yes, they are are all very real. I played football at Rankin (Red Devils) and later in Louisiana. Rankin is just south of Odessa about 56 miles and football there was intense, also. Intense football is prevalent in west Texas. Bissinger made it so real that the familiar taste of so long ago became noticeable in my mouth as he described the boys throwing up before the games. The smell of the locker room became real. I could feel the pain in Boobies knee (from my own seven knee surgeries). I was actually sore the day following finishing the book as if I had played the game, too. The book will have you cheering one moment, shaking your head in disgust one moment, and your eyes will tear from sadness the next moment. Prepare yourself for an emotional roller coaster. I was on a transpacific flight when I read this book in its entirety. It was pitch black outside and in the cabin, also, save for one single reading light - and that was me reading this book. Everyone else was asleep. Keep in mind what Bissinger says at the end in the Acknowledgements: "I remember the first time I saw them in the field house, with no idea of what they would be like and how they would take to me, or, for that matter, how I would take to them. And I remember how I thought of them at the end, as kids that I adored." So, some are critical of his presentation, but note that at the end and now - he adores those kids. You will not forget this book. And, as I read the sports section today, there are the Permian Panthers in Division 1 5A in the state play-offs. They just clobbered a team in El Paso and advanced. The MoJo continues today in its own unique and unparalleled way! The town, the team, and the dream are all still alive. Read the book and live it yourself.
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