[Peter Gent] has written a big, powerful, chaotic novel about life in pro football and in Texas. Rich in sex and drugs, violence and satiric humor, "North Dallas Forty" is neither as hilarious as Dan Jenkins's "Semi-Tough" nor as scathing and self-righteous as the various football exposés of recent seasons—but it is not meant to match any of those books. Instead, Gent has written a sensitive, personal novel about one man's attempt at survival in a cold, unnatural environment; and for the most part, he has made it work on his own terms.

Phil Elliott, Gent's hero, is a fringe player, an injury-plagued receiver who is close enough to the end of his career to see clearly into the worlds both inside and outside of football. His coach, a man of "bovine indifference" to individuals, tends to use Elliott only when the Cowboys are trailing, and...