Few examples better demonstrate the disparity between a novel and its screen adaptations than Friday Night Lights. It was a great, moving film that focused on the 1988 Permian Panthers football team that lost the championship, but gained invaluable perspective on life. Much more interesting, is the Philadelphia Inquirer editor H.G. Bissinger’s written chronicle of what he observed during his family’s one-year residence in Odessa, Texas. The novel spends much less time examining the characters of the town; instead it explores the character of the town.

Bissinger tried to get to the heart of how an entire town - - brimming with racism, ignorance, and unfulfilled perceived destinies - - hinges its livelihood on football. To do this, he explores all facets of Odessa, Texas - - its inhabitants, its history, and its passion for the game. What Bissinger found was some pretty unbelievable facts about this formerly booming oil town. The roads were lined with ghosts that no longer brought forth the liquid gold known as oil. The schools were not integrated until 1982, under federal duress. Money magazine listed Odessa as the fifth worst U.S. city out of 300 to live, 1987. Nigger was thrown around as casually as “pass the salt”. Odessa even served as the home for Papa Bush for a couple of years during his oil heydays. Now, add to that a blinding love for high school football and strange barely begins to describe the world of Odessa, Texas.

The individual players served as windows into Odessa’s damaged soul: Booby Miles’ dreams were ripped to shreds along with his ACL leaving him little opportunity beyond working in the local grocery store; Ivory Christian vomited before every game, so sickened was he by the barbaric sport that he was compelled to play; Brian Chavez was an anomaly in Odessa – Hispanic and bound for Harvard; Mike Winchell just wanted to get away from his debilitated and debilitating mother even though his chances of succeeding elsewhere were practically nil; and Don Billingsley seemed determined to follow in his father’s footsteps of football, alcohol, and violence.

ere it not for the fact that Bissinger is such a credible editor and writer, I would have believed this to be a work of fiction.  The town and many of its inhabitants were nearly caricatures, seemingly lacking some basic building blocks of civilized mankind, stuck in a time warp of oppressor and oppressee; rich and poor; championships and losses. Nevertheless, this disturbing exposure of one American town was a page-turner that kept me interested through a combination of shock and wonder.

Suggested by Kathy Wilson Duprey - Alexandria, VA.