Friday Night Lights is one of my favorite movies, so I decided to read a review on the book and it sounded good so I decided to read it. This book is one of my favorite books. Usually, I like picture books and comics, but this is a book that if I was bored, I can just go grab it and read it. I love books about sports and this book fits right into my type of book. I would rate this book a grade of a A+ (5 stars).
Bissinger captures the wildness that overtakes Odessa every Friday night that the Panthers played. The great fan support that all community members supporting Permian High School felt for the Panthers.The stories of the school district chartering a jet for fans to travel to away games, of teachers giving the football players test answer sheets along with their test to help keep grades up, and of players delaying X-rays on knowingly-fractured bones so as not to become ineligible for playing in the next game.
You can see throughout the book that this is not just a book about the craze of football. It’s also a book about the town itself, its people and its politics, as well as the way it represents a small town that can become big, even with many problems such as the bust and crime.
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Some of the parts had more meaning to me, such as how the town of Odessa grew and changed over the years, including the racism and the politics of the city. Oil and football created Odessa, which was mostly white in its beginnings. During the boom years new people arrived and the town was still able to thrive, and in the years when oil prices were low the town came to a steady stop and economic depression became common in many other small-town places.
The black community of course lived mainly on one side of the tracks, in the least wealthy part of the city. When Latinos began moving to Odessa in larger groups, most of them lived on the black side of the tracks as well, though some were able to make it in more wealthy part of the town.
As the city got bigger the eastern part of town became the most wealthiest, most white section and also the location of the football powerhouse high school Permian. Bissinger records how football played a role in ceizing racism as it grew. When the town was forced to integrate its schools for instance, the black high school got closed down.
Permian High School got to have a larger share of the black residents bused to their high school. Many were happy about this because of the belief that blacks were better football players than whites and could help the football team in many of their needs. Bissinger discusses several other disagreeing accounts of racist moments and discrimination throughout the book.
