Friday Night Lights
H.G. Bissinger

Friday Night Lights was an interesting book, and too be honest I was not the biggest fan. It was probably due to the fact that I had seen the movie way before reading the book. One of the main reasons why I was not a fan of the book was because of how much the author spent in the beginning talking about the background of the town that the story was set in and writing about life aside from football and the drama within everyone’s life. I suppose I just wanted to read about football. Another thing that might have led to me being annoyed with so much “story” is that we were reading all the flash fiction while I was reading this book; I suppose I just really enjoyed the flash fiction more and the structure of a straight to the point story rather than an overload of background.

Near the end of the book I began to enjoy it a bit more, especially during their playoff run at the end. As well during this part I began to understand the meaning of the story a bit more and that it is about how football is life in Odessa and how there is nothing more than that because once high school is over your life is over because people rarely leave their small town to go on to do things. A quote by one of the teammates said that really stood out to me that made me pick up on that major part of the story was, “This is the last minute of your life.” (p. 326) This refers to the fact that after football you are nothing and your life ends.