Friday Night Lights: A Town, a Team, and a Dream by H.g. Bissinger Summary and Reviews
|
List Price: Our Price: $4.49 You Save: $11.46 (72%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $0.01 (click here) Category: Book See more book details and other editions |
|---|
Book Reviews of Friday Night Lights: A Town, a Team, and a Dream
Book Review: simply brilliant
Summary: 5 Stars
I bought this book, like many on the back of seeing the film and then subsequently a few episodes of the TV show and i have to say i was blown away from the first chapter.
I wouldnt say it was completely different to the film or the show but alot more in depth, as you would expect from a book but watchin the film you cant help but feel that there is alot of things that they could have focused more on to make it a better adaptation, which is why this book has to be read aswell if you are a fan of either the tv show or the film because you can get a better feel for the characters and the town and why they are the way they are when it comes to high school football.
brilliantly written, poignantly set in a time where not alot is going for the town apart from those Friday Night Lights - (cheesy ending i know but what the hell)
simply brilliant
Book Review: Better than the film
Summary: 5 Stars
Like most others, I was inspired to read this after seeing the film. The film was great, but the book is brilliant. Like the Glory Game and Spurs in English football, the author here has got unparalleled access to the club and it shows in the pages. This is about hopes and dreams as well as the crashing and bashing of American football. A must for all sports fans.Book Review: Astonishing
Summary: 5 Stars
Being English, the whole American high school sport thing is something of a mystery. I knew that some university teams get crowds bigger than premier league football does here, but had no idea that schoolchildren can draw crowds of 20,000 to watch their games.
And I think the main point of the book is that the word "school children" has been completely lost (or rather had been in the late 1980s, when this book was written). These young men train more or less full time, and have what must be almost unbearable pressures heaped upon them before they are old enough to drink (not that the legal age seemed to stop them). The book is about shattered dreams and hopes and is rivetting.
But it's astonishing in what it shows about race in America, and about class, and about sport (or "sports"). Of course, a lot might have changed in 20 years, but the racism is shocking. Genuinely, truly shocking. As is the way that children's educations are sacrificed in the name of sporting achievement. These guys don't have to do any school work they don't want to. It's an amazing portrait of the town, Odessa, of the people in it, and of (a bit of) America.
If, like me, you don't really understand American football (beyond the large men in armour knocking seven bells out of each other), it doesn't matter, as many of the details don't matter (understanding what a Safety or Split End does isn't necessary) and the writing about the matches themselves is good enough to keep you going.
One of the best books about sport I've ever read. Fantastic.
Book Review: Even for the non-US sports literate...
Summary: 5 Stars
There is little than can be added about this incredible book, other than to assure any Brits or potential readers put off by the fact that they don't understand/enjoy American Football that you don't need an sort of links or history with the sport to thoroughly enjoy what is one of the finest sports books of all time.
There are many 'spending-a-season-with' sporting works, and some of them (Tim Parks' A Season With Verona and Joe McGinniss's The Miracle of Castel di Sangro, for example) are excellent. However, with regards to this type of sporting book, HG Bissinger is the king. You feel like you know Boobie, Mike, Ivory, Don and Coach Gaines by the end. As the book closes, even Bissinger's update on how they are doing (in later prints of the novel) aren't enough. You've befriended these people and you demand to know how they are now, what they are doing, etc...
As a Brit whose childhood was dominated by school sport, the Odessa recreated by Bissinger seems a mile away from the disinterest in the soccer teams of my high school. But that doesn't detract from what is an entertaining, touching and informative book. Very strongly recommended.