Friday Night Lights offers a biting indictment of the sports craziness that grips. most of American society, while at the same time providing a moving evocation of its powerful allure." - New York Times Book Review "[Bissinger writes] with empathy, and he writes superbly." - Houston Chronicle Off the Shelf, 5/19/15 '[A] sports literature classic.' TouchVision.com, 8/5/15 'A genre-defining work that deftly examine[s] the role of sports in society. The book is, along with Ball Four and Moneyball , one of the most influential sports books of all time. It's actually reductive to call Friday Night Lights a sports book.
It lives on in college sociology courses for its searing look at sport, race and class. Scores of writers have tried to duplicate Bissinger's efforts, but few, if any, have managed to capture a story from every angle of society. Bissinger's work holds up because of his exceptional writing and shoe-leather journalism.' Shelf Awareness for Readers, 8/28/15 'Ostensibly a chronicle of the 1988 season of the Permian Panthers high school football team, Friday Night Lights is also a social history and expose of an economically depressed and shockingly racially divided city of 90,000 in West Texas. A riveting account of a community and an obsession that every year turned teenage boys into 'unwitting sacrifices to a strange and powerful god.'' Antelope Valley Press , 8/28/15 'Few books in the sports genre have left the cultural impact of Bissinger's bestseller.' Austin Monthly , 9/17/15 'The new edition includes updates on some of the most compelling people from the book.' Fort Worth Star-Telegram , 9/19/15 "Still relevant, popular at age 25.
" Midland Reporter-Telegram , 9/13/15 '25 years later it's still an intriguing story.' Literary Hub, 9/25/15 'To read Friday Night Lights merely as a football book. is a mistake. It is a seminal piece of American reportage that uses the lens of football to examine the larger political and philosophical divides that still fracture our country. Our most important books are timeless and Friday Night Lights feels as alive and relevant today, if not more so, than when it was first published.' Men's Journal , 10/2/15 'May well be the best book about American football ever written.' KERA News, 10/2/15 'Conjures up a very specific image of Texas, of football, of high school. Lights rising over a stadium, bleachers filled with fans so loyal it almost feels surreal.
' The Daily Beast , 9/20/15, 'The Best Books Ever Written About Football" 'The classic Friday Night Lights vividly spotlights one Texas high school's championship season. It spawned. a keener understanding of how deep football runs in many small towns and communities across the country.' Signature, 2/4/16 'A must-read for any fan interested in understanding the deep-seated roots of football in communities across America. In Friday Night Lights , Bissinger, more so than perhaps any other writer on the subject, delves into the core of America's fascination with the sport and all that fascination carries with it.' ".