Review Detail

Reader reviewed by Jared

Im sure that almost all sports fans, at one time or another have seen the terrific sports film, Friday Night Lights. I recently read the story that the film was based on and I think its fair to say that the book was much better. Friday Night Lights: A Town, a team and a dream, follows the star players on the Permian High football team and their road to a state championship. The book is nicely written as the author gives a detailed background of each athlete, both on and off the field. In my opinion, the book provided a more in depth look at each key player on the team, and showed what their lives outside of football were like. For example, the movie leaves out the fact that none of the players were serious students and rarely went to class. I felt that this was an interesting thing the book added as it showed how important high school football really was to the town. They would take a state championship over an educated generation of youth any day. I could really relate to the intensity of each game for Permian, as I am a serious athlete myself and know how much the desire to win can take a person over. Bissinger does a fantastic job writing this story and I was very pleased when I finished. He left no stone unturned and revealed everything from the towns background, to play-by-play of the key games. This was a great read overall, and any sports fans like myself, should definitely consider picking it up.