Structure

H.G. Bissinger writes his book “Friday Night Lights” in the first-person omniscient reflective narrative mode. Bissinger, who traveled to Odessa in the spring of 1988, and spent the next year there with his family, did hundreds of interviews and immense amounts of research to prepare for writing the book. As the book comprises not only the events described relating to football season, but Bissinger’s personal experiences as well, he directly addresses the reader and references himself in various places throughout. For example, in the very first paragraphs of the Preface, Bissinger directly references himself and his desire to understand the hold sports have on small towns. Given that Bissinger is writing about the event after they happened (with the book being published in 1990), his writing takes on a reflective tone in many places –including, for example, in the Afterword. There, Bissinger notes in reflection that he...