At times this book could be slow to read but overall I found to be enjoyable/eye opening. The fact that it's 1987 and Odessa is still not desegregated was one of the more eye opening parts of the book. Growing up on the east coast before this I found it very hard to understand how this way of thinking was still so prevalent. On top of that the emphasis of high school football over academics and students health was another mind boggling part. I can't imagine a world where students don't have to participate in school yet are expected to play a high school football game with broken ankles and arms. SPOILER ALERT: I was very disturbed that so much emphasis is put on these sports that it can potentially ruin a kids life like how Boobie amounted to almost nothing because he put all his eggs in one basket and found out that's not the only thing in life. I am glad the book was able to shed some light on the drastic level of thinking in this community and they were able to take a step back and reassess their ways of thinking.