Friday Reads: Don't Know Tough

F is for Fall and Football (and Friday Reads). This week, Library Director Adam Pellman discusses Don't Know Tough by Eli Cranor. 

While I no longer watch much football, it's that time of year, which made it an ideal time to read Don't Know Tough, a novel which is set against the backdrop of high school football in small-town Arkansas. The Denton Pirates have made the playoffs for the first time in many years, thanks mostly to the efforts of star running back Billy Lowe, whose explosive talents on the field are matched by his explosions of anger and violence off the field. Billy's troubled home life, where he suffers at the hands of his mom's abusive boyfriend, becomes the focus of the team's born-again Christian head coach, Trent Powers, who is intent on saving not just his team's winning season, but also Billy's soul. When the abusive boyfriend is found murdered, Billy becomes the prime suspect. This is a distinctly Southern noir, with a real feel for the insularity that can sometimes be found in small towns, but what ultimately makes the novel stand out is its examination of the ways that the bonds of family run deeper than anything else. I went into this novel expecting Friday Night Lights by way of Winter's Bone, but I think it's really the other way around.