In honor of football season starting up this weekend, it seems appropriate that we give a big Zonino! to one of the best gridiron-themed books around - Friday Night Lights. This phenomenally narrated piece of non-fiction, written during the fall of 1988 by H.G.Bissinger, follows the always emotional season of high school football at Permian High School in Odessa, Texas.
Bissinger wraps the reader in all the intricacies of west Texas culture - the potlucks, booster meetings, post-game keggers, economic woes, racial lines, religious influences, political leanings and more - to paint a picture that convinces those of us not from this corner of the country that this is much more than a game. He justifiably makes the players, coaches, parents, alumni, and town-folk into more than just characters or personalities in a story. They become people that you feel you know; when they suffer a disappointment, it too becomes your disappointment.
While this book is about football, its soul is about people. It's about dreams - having them, wanting them, longing for them, and missing them.
Sergio del Limonar
I LOVE this book! I read it once, and then I watched the movie (with Billy Bob) afterward. Cried like a baby. So good!
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