2008 Dewey Decimal Project: 796.332 B
May. 20th, 2008 09:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rsadelleYou may remember that I've been working on a high school football novel. When I wrote the first draft, I watched the movie version of Friday Night Lights. Now that I'm rewriting it, I thought I should read the book, especially since my novel takes place in Texas in (I think; I need to make a timeline) 1988. I looked at it on the shelf in the library twice before I could bring myself to check it out because I was afraid it would be depressing.
I was right.
I can't believe how horrible it would be for these kids to have the whole world of their whole city riding on them, and to know - and have adults tell you - that once your football season is over, the rest of your life is just a slow slide toward death.
The book is fascinating, even though it's depressing. In addition to the football, Bissinger covers the social world of the town: racism and its historical role in the town, the effects of the oil boom-bust cycle, the way academics takes a distant second to football. The writing has a tendency towards overwrought, but it mostly fits the subject matter.
I was right.
I can't believe how horrible it would be for these kids to have the whole world of their whole city riding on them, and to know - and have adults tell you - that once your football season is over, the rest of your life is just a slow slide toward death.
The book is fascinating, even though it's depressing. In addition to the football, Bissinger covers the social world of the town: racism and its historical role in the town, the effects of the oil boom-bust cycle, the way academics takes a distant second to football. The writing has a tendency towards overwrought, but it mostly fits the subject matter.