To be completely honest this book was sort of “meh”. (Imagine a teenager with a blank look on their face and shrugging their shoulders as they make this sound and that is my reaction to the novel.)
As you’ll see in the rest of the review, I’m banking on the film being amazing because the idea is rich and the time period provides ample opportunities for costume and drama. I did try to think of a word to describe the novel and both mediocre and uninspiring didn’t fit. I can see where others would love this novel, but I didn’t really have a reaction to it. If I didn’t 1) refuse to leave a book unread; and 2) have to read this for my Books into Movies book group I probably would have abandoned it about half way through. Perhaps it’s just not my cup of tea, but that being said it was easy to read and relatively interesting considering my lack of enjoyment in the novel.
I read this book for our library book group, Books into Films. I just finished watching the film and as usual, the book was much better. I think you could say the film is ‘loosely’ – if even that – based on the book. There were so many additions that I was rather confused throughout.
I decided with this novel that I would include re-reads in my reviews unless I have reviewed them in the past year. The only exception will be books I read somewhat frequently like At Swim, Two Boys or Harry Potter.
I thought Friday Night Lights was going to focus solely on football (like the movie) but it didn’t. It was about so much more.
What a fascinating memoir. I knew who John Waters was based on his picture, but had no idea what he had done and who he was in Hollywood. He’s a cult filmmaker, I’ve only seen Hairspray, but recognized a few of the other movies listed. There were two things that I found absolutely fascinating about this book, the first was his fascination with gristliness/grunge/dirtiness and how he wrote the memoir itself.