a book
Friday Night Lights
H. G. Bissinger · 2004 · 413 pages
Named Sports Illustrated's best football book of all time and a #1 NYT bestseller, this is the classic story of a high school football team whose win-loss record has a profound influence on the town around them.
Return once again to the timeless account of the Permian Panthers of Odessa -- the winningest high-school football team in Texas history. Socially and racially divided, Odessa isn't known to be a place big on dreams, but every Friday night from September to December, when the Panthers play football, dreams can come true.
With frankness and compassion, Pulitzer Prize winner H. G. Bissinger unforgettably captures a season in the life of Odessa and shows how single-minded devotion to the team shapes the community and inspires -- and sometimes shatters -- the teenagers who wear the Panthers' uniforms.
The inspiration for the hit television program and film of the same name, this anniversary edition features a new afterword by the author.
Return once again to the timeless account of the Permian Panthers of Odessa -- the winningest high-school football team in Texas history. Socially and racially divided, Odessa isn't known to be a place big on dreams, but every Friday night from September to December, when the Panthers play football, dreams can come true.
With frankness and compassion, Pulitzer Prize winner H. G. Bissinger unforgettably captures a season in the life of Odessa and shows how single-minded devotion to the team shapes the community and inspires -- and sometimes shatters -- the teenagers who wear the Panthers' uniforms.
The inspiration for the hit television program and film of the same name, this anniversary edition features a new afterword by the author.
recommended by 3 people
sourced from public statements
Jeff Atwood
“"He lost the testicle but he did make All State." super late to this party, but the book Friday Night Lights is brutally honest documentary”↗
Brian Grazer
“About the fragility of what it’s like to grow up as a young boy – 15, 16, 17 years old.”↗
Hanif Abdurraqib
“Racism, classism, worship of sport above all can become so commonplace that a town doesn’t understand what flaws sit in the mythology of football and apple pie Americana. I became so fascinated by Bissinger’s portrayal of Odessa, Texas, that I drove two days to it myself, two years after I read the book… I think that is what good reporting does: it tells you of a place that you have to set your feet on, just to be sure it’s real.”↗