[.ca] Friday Night Lights Mass Market TV Tie-in (ISBN 030681529X)

From Amazon.com:
Secular religions are fascinating in the devotion and zealousness they breed, and in Texas, high school football has its own rabid hold over the faithful. H.G. Bissinger, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, enters into the spirit of one of its most fervent shrines: Odessa, a city in decline in the desert of West Texas, where the Permian High School Panthers have managed to compile the winningest record in state annals. Indeed, as this breathtaking examination of the town, the team, its coaches, and its young players chronicles, the team, for better and for worse, is the town; the communal health and self-image of the latter is directly linked to the on-field success of the former. The 1988 season, the one Friday Night Lights recounts, was not one of the Panthers' best. The game's effect on the community--and the players--was explosive. Written with great style and passion, Friday Night Lights offers an American snapshot in deep focus; the picture is not always pretty, but the image is hard to forget.

This is one of the most amazing stories ever told....:
I've read this book 6 times because I can't put it down when I start reading. I PROMISE you won't be disappointed!!! Like many others here, I too played highschool football in Texas and have known of the Permian Panthers even before highschool. The book will take you through the '88 season both on and off the field. From the first booster club meeting to the last game of the season, you'll be there for it all. The author follows a few players closely and you get to hear their stories. Although they played on the same team, some of their experiences are so different. The way the games are described is incredible and realistic. Even the coach feels the pressure when he comes home to "for sale" signs in his front yard after a loss. To me the most interesting and best chapter in the book was when the author talks about the Dallas Carter Cowboys. He sets up the showdown with Permian in amazing fashion. I'm from a suburb of Dallas and I know of that Carter team. They were filled with nothing but "superstars" who were some of the baddest players around. Current Wash. Redskins linebacker Jessie Armstead is a sophmore during this season. It was great because the Permian players are not big at all and you get to hear about a group of over-achievers going against superior athletes. My boss played on this team in the book (offensive line) and has a small quote in the book. I was lucky enough to be able to borrow a few games he had recorded from the '88 season. It was amazing to get to see the actual players in the book play those games. The summaries in the book of those games are right on target. Those kids played their hearts out every play and the crowd was just unreal. Like someone else in their review said, "Even if you hate football, you'll love this book." Do yourself a favor and read this book.

Simply one of the finest sports chronicles ever:
When I first picked up this book, on my lunch break, I arbitrarily flipped to a page in the middle and started reading. I became so engrossed in it that I was late getting back to work from my lunch break. Such is the superb quality of writing that Bissinger brings to this book. Friday Night Lights is about the Permian High School Panthers football team in the 1988 season. In Odessa, TX, they only "have two things - football and oil, and there ain't no more oil." Carried on the adolescent shoulders of the black-clad Panthers are the hopes, dreams, aspirations, and societal well-being of an entire community. The book focuses on the intense scrutiny and pressure placed on the players, coaches, and even families associated with the program. After a tough loss, the head coach can expect to have his house vandalized, his family verbally assaulted, and calls made for his firing. The student population of Permian is predominantly white, but the few black players imported from Odessa's poor, mostly black, south side are some of the team's most successful players. The book highlights the contrast in the white, wealthy suburban area Permian is located in against the older section of Odessa, populated mostly by blacks and Hispanics. The book also profiles several of the team's star players. Some live for every single moment they can wear the Panthers uniform, while others are conflicted at having to play in such a pressure-cooker environment. Some are the lucky sons of Odessa's richest residents, bound for Ivy-League schools, while others come from painful poverty and broken homes. Odessa is portrayed as an entire city of broken dreams, devastated by the downturn in the oil industry where unemployment is high and crime higher. What holds the community together is the Friday Night Lights at Ratliff Stadium, where the Panthers do battle not only for team and school pride, but for the pride of an entire community and people. I cannot recommend this book more highly.

Must Reading for Every Parent of Every Boy Who Plays:
This book helps you understand what the game means to your kid. You must understand that to understand his sacrifice. My wife and I moved to Texas in 1980. We had a daughter age 5 and no sons. We moved to Plano, Texas, a suburb of Dallas, which, in many ways became the Odessa of the 80s and 90s (Permian was one of the two high schools). By the time we read the book, our older son was already playing Jr. High football. And, I asked my wife, "What did you think?" Her reply, "I don't think I want our son playing high school football in Texas." It was too late. He loved the game ...still does. As a senior his Plano East Senior High Panthers were state quarterfinalists. I cannot count the the tears that were shed the night they were eliminated, nor can I count the joyous moments of that year. I cry when I see the cover of the book ...15 years or so later in another city ...that was my son. He now plays for Baylor University. This book helps you understand what the game means to your kid. You must understand to understand his sacrifice.

Friday Night Lights:
Friday Night Lights is a great book that tells about the whole entire 1988 season of the Permian High School Panthers. The town of Odessa, Texas' financial trouble is very easy to recongnize by its boarded-up shops and broken down lives. But through all of this turmoil there is a football team keeping the citizens hopes alive. Every Friday the Panthers take the field and revitalixe the grim thoughts and feelings of the citizen of Odessa. In a place where economic troubles has taken away the spirit of its people, nearly everyone wants the feeling given by the Friday night ritual, where the dwindling dreams of the community are put into the helmets of high school athletes. Friday Night Lights captures the imagination and craze of a small town that love its school teams and their games every Friday. with Odessa now being like other places just like it across America, this book provides a thrilling and exciting look at the hope for successes and the many failures of trying to live the American Dream by cheering and hoping the best for a group of young men they call their heroes. This nonfiction thriller is everything a sports enthusiast should look for in a book. It it action and page turning ability is one of a kind.

Excellent book:
This book was an excellent read. As someone who works with part of a college football team that has a winning tradition, I found this book to be extremely insightful. I found the characters to be enjoyable and very relatable to those that I work with. I found myself cheering for the boys of Odesa and feeling sorry for them when they were low. I couldn't put this book down. I read it in 24 hours it was so powerful. As an author I can only hope that I can some day write this well and with such emotion.