Fülszöveg
FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS
A Town, a Team, and a Dream
H. G. Bissinger
"Odessa is the setting for this book, but it could be anyplace in this vast land where, on a Friday night, a set of spindly stádium lights rises to the heavens to so powerfully, und so briefly, ignite the darkness." — from the Preface
Closed-up movie theaters. Empty store fronts. For-sale signs everywhere. This is Odessa, Texas. But although it has seen better days, Odessa still has a dream.
That dream comes to Life once a week every fali, when the Panthers of Permian High School take the football field under the Friday night lights. MO-JO! MO-JO! The haunting cheer rocks the stádium fiiled with 20,000 fans, who are there not only to root for their beloved team, but to live out their own hopes and aspirations.
In this remarkable book, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist H. G. Bissinger chronicles a season in the life of Odessa: the coaches, the mothers and fathers, the teachers, the minis-ters, the politicians —...
Tovább
Fülszöveg
FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS
A Town, a Team, and a Dream
H. G. Bissinger
"Odessa is the setting for this book, but it could be anyplace in this vast land where, on a Friday night, a set of spindly stádium lights rises to the heavens to so powerfully, und so briefly, ignite the darkness." — from the Preface
Closed-up movie theaters. Empty store fronts. For-sale signs everywhere. This is Odessa, Texas. But although it has seen better days, Odessa still has a dream.
That dream comes to Life once a week every fali, when the Panthers of Permian High School take the football field under the Friday night lights. MO-JO! MO-JO! The haunting cheer rocks the stádium fiiled with 20,000 fans, who are there not only to root for their beloved team, but to live out their own hopes and aspirations.
In this remarkable book, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist H. G. Bissinger chronicles a season in the life of Odessa: the coaches, the mothers and fathers, the teachers, the minis-ters, the politicians — and most of all the players, who carry an entire city's image of itself on their young shoulders. From the prayer that opens the Watermelon Feed before the first game, through the heart-stopping season and its dramatic ending, Bissinger paints an unforgettable scene — the stale, sweltering air, the painful collision of players on the field, the thrilling wins and punishing, sometimes tragic, losses.
FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS is both a deeply moving story and a deeply disturbing one. It is a startiing examination of the role of high school sports in America, but it is about much more than just sports.
Continued on back flap
"By choosing to write about something small — the culture of high school football in a Texas town," writes Dávid Halberstam, "H. G. Bissinger has ended up writing about something large, the core values in our society."
FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS is about race, politics, economics, and education. It is about young lives whose course may be determined for good before thcy've really begun. And, ultimately, it is a fascinating portrait of life in America, a book that will be talked about for years.
H. G. Bissinger was a reporter and editor at the Philadelphia Inquirer for seven years. He has received the Pulitzer Prize, the Livingston Award, the National Headliner Award, and the American Bar Association's Silver Gavel for his reportage. He was a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University in 1985—86.
Vissza