Status
Available
Call number
Genres
Collection
Publication
G.P. Putnam's Sons (2021), 400 pages
Description
"The New York Times bestselling author of My Sunshine Away returns with another instant Southern classic: a gripping and heartfelt novel about a mysterious machine that upends a small Louisiana town, asking us all to wonder if who we truly are is who we truly could be"--
User reviews
LibraryThing member brangwinn
As I read this, I could not help thinking about Dr. Seuss’s The Sneetches in which a machine is brought to town to change the lives of the inhabitants. There will be no Star-Bellied Sneetches, but there will be people in the small town of Deerfield, Louisiana who have their lives disrupted by the
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DYNAMIX machine. For $2.00 and a cheek swab, people learn their true life calling. So, when a stay-at-home wife of the high school teacher learns she was to be royalty, life at home changes. And as often happens, life turns to pain. A classmate tries to convince Jacob, a high school student, that they are to plot a revenge against the student who was with Jacob’s twin brother when he died in a drunk-driving accident. Best line in the book is when Jacob discovers “everyone on this planet is just one stranger’s decision away from eternity.” If you’re stuck at home because of COVID and you have YA students who can handle a more mature subject and language, this would be a great family read-aloud. Everyone needs more gratitude in their lives and this book makes the reader think about it. Show Less
LibraryThing member jillrhudy
Deerfield, Louisiana is celebrating its 200th anniversary, and the bicentennial motto is “Welcome to Deerfield!! 200 Years of Peace and Quiet!!” The peace of Deerfield is shattered when a mysterious machine appears in Johnson’s supermarket. The “DNAMix” supposedly gives you a ticket
At times eerily prescient and at times completely ridiculous, the DNAMix causes Deerfield’s inhabitants to be transfixed by what might have been, and what still might happen, if they make huge changes in their lives. The costume shop is mobbed with locals chasing their new destinies.
Meanwhile, high school history teacher Douglas’s newfound dreams of becoming a musician are undone as the DNAMix tells him he’s already fulfilled his destiny. This throws Douglas into a funk. Douglas is a very good man who adores his lovely wife Cherilyn. The DNAMix told Cherilyn that she was meant to be royalty, with mostly bad results.
Meanwhile, in the novel’s dark story line, the local Catholic priest, Pete, is very worried about his troubled niece, Trina. Grieving her boyfriend, Toby, who died in an auto accident, Trina blames Toby’s friends for his death. Trina is bullying Toby’s twin brother Jacob into participating in some sort of revenge plot: something far more dangerous than the mostly harmless fantasies obsessing the rest of the population.
In a place where everyone knows everyone else’s business, it’s going to be the wildest small town bicentennial celebration ever.
I enjoyed reading “The Big Door Prize" and recommend it to fans of southern fiction. One of the plot lines was anti-climactic after I was expecting something big to happen, and I didn't enjoy the primary female characters nearly as much as the primary male characters. However, by the time all of the plot lines converged at festival time in Deerfield, I had laughed, cried, and gotten the chills, but the novel felt so real that it never felt manipulative or cheesy. So you think you know people? Maybe you don’t know them at all.
I received an advanced readers copy of this book from the publisher and Netgalley and was encouraged to submit an honest review.
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revealing your true destiny in exchange for a couple of bucks and a swab of your saliva, and within weeks the DNAMix creates total chaos. At times eerily prescient and at times completely ridiculous, the DNAMix causes Deerfield’s inhabitants to be transfixed by what might have been, and what still might happen, if they make huge changes in their lives. The costume shop is mobbed with locals chasing their new destinies.
Meanwhile, high school history teacher Douglas’s newfound dreams of becoming a musician are undone as the DNAMix tells him he’s already fulfilled his destiny. This throws Douglas into a funk. Douglas is a very good man who adores his lovely wife Cherilyn. The DNAMix told Cherilyn that she was meant to be royalty, with mostly bad results.
Meanwhile, in the novel’s dark story line, the local Catholic priest, Pete, is very worried about his troubled niece, Trina. Grieving her boyfriend, Toby, who died in an auto accident, Trina blames Toby’s friends for his death. Trina is bullying Toby’s twin brother Jacob into participating in some sort of revenge plot: something far more dangerous than the mostly harmless fantasies obsessing the rest of the population.
In a place where everyone knows everyone else’s business, it’s going to be the wildest small town bicentennial celebration ever.
I enjoyed reading “The Big Door Prize" and recommend it to fans of southern fiction. One of the plot lines was anti-climactic after I was expecting something big to happen, and I didn't enjoy the primary female characters nearly as much as the primary male characters. However, by the time all of the plot lines converged at festival time in Deerfield, I had laughed, cried, and gotten the chills, but the novel felt so real that it never felt manipulative or cheesy. So you think you know people? Maybe you don’t know them at all.
I received an advanced readers copy of this book from the publisher and Netgalley and was encouraged to submit an honest review.
Show Less
LibraryThing member saroz
This is a fantastic premise in search of a far better novel.
I bought this book because I was so intrigued by the first two episodes of the new TV series based on it. The premise: a small American town, set in its quiet little ways, is shaken up by the mysterious arrival of a machine that claims to
To me, this is a classic Twilight Zone premise, worthy of Rod Serling or Richard Matheson. (I'm sure others will see hints of Stephen King here, or even the Tom Hanks movie Big.) The original 1960s series was full of episodes where a sudden, supernatural or pseudo-magical catalyst forced characters to re-evaluate their lives. Most of the time, a Twilight Zone would set this kind of idea off like a snowball down a hill, gathering speed and mass until it became a crisis by the end of the episode. Sometimes, the crisis would end in a narrow escape; sometimes, the characters had to learn their lessons the hard way.
I like this kind of thing, so I bought the book to see which it was going to be.
What I learned very quickly is that the producers of the TV series bought the rights to the book for the premise and (I suspect) not much else. The character names have all been changed, although they mostly have the same relationships and you can compare like-to-like between versions quite easily. Far more important is the change in the general tone. The TV series has quirky, funny moments, but it also has a vein of genuine melancholy running through it. M.O. Walsh's novel, on the other hand, is - dare I say it - a bit breezy.
At first, I thought he, too, was trying to present the characters quirkily. He spends an awful lot of time in each of several characters' heads, but weirdly, you don't seem to get to know most of them any better than you did at the beginning. They don't shift or change or have conflicting emotions. Instead, they seem to have two modes: love and deep empathy, and a sudden, almost child-like hope about the future. Indeed, some of them start to demonstrate a grandiosity that, as I was reading, I anticipated would be punctured like a balloon.
I found the book easy to read, but as I was going along, I questioned what the author was doing. I kept wondering why, although Walsh occasionally tossed out a high high for a character to experience, I wasn't getting any texture from low lows. By only ever allowing his characters to fleetingly question their own judgment, Walsh made them look, in many cases, quite willfully naïve. I kept making excuses for that in my mind, thinking he was setting them up to take a big fall, a big, dark, climax that would show them all up for the rather smug fools they'd been.
That never happened, except in perhaps the most anticlimactic way possible. In fact, the few small moments of darkness are swept up almost as soon as they're introduced. The entire final third of the book never really lands because there isn't a true climax: things appear to be getting worse - but then they're okay. Somehow. Magically. Because of love.
As for the machine that tells people's potential, it almost completely vanishes over the second half of the book, only briefly reemerging at the very end. And that's fine - a catalyst is a catalyst for a reason, and I never really expected to learn what it "meant" or why it was even there in the first place. However, I did expect its influence to keep motivating the story, and at some point, that simply stopped happening. It's as if it just blew away in the breeze.
I can't in good conscience recommend this book unless you like a read that is so cozy it almost feels saccharine. What's so strange to me is that there is plenty of implied content in this book that is neither cozy nor saccharine, but it all just gets glossed over and swept away in favor of slightly smug, cutesy warm feelings. In another novel, a little unrealistic warmth might feel like relief after a look at what pain and loss can allow people to believe. Here, that simply isn't earned, because the author barely scratched the surface.
I bought this book because I was so intrigued by the first two episodes of the new TV series based on it. The premise: a small American town, set in its quiet little ways, is shaken up by the mysterious arrival of a machine that claims to
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tell people their "potential." Folks line up to go in the little booth, give their information, and receive a little blue card with a single word on it, like Hero or Carpenter or Magician. One local teacher, having just turned 40, is crushed by the "potential" he receives: Teacher/Whistler. It takes him over the edge into a mid-life crisis - why is everyone losing their minds over this thing? Why is his wife acting so strange? And doesn't he have more potential, anyway?To me, this is a classic Twilight Zone premise, worthy of Rod Serling or Richard Matheson. (I'm sure others will see hints of Stephen King here, or even the Tom Hanks movie Big.) The original 1960s series was full of episodes where a sudden, supernatural or pseudo-magical catalyst forced characters to re-evaluate their lives. Most of the time, a Twilight Zone would set this kind of idea off like a snowball down a hill, gathering speed and mass until it became a crisis by the end of the episode. Sometimes, the crisis would end in a narrow escape; sometimes, the characters had to learn their lessons the hard way.
I like this kind of thing, so I bought the book to see which it was going to be.
What I learned very quickly is that the producers of the TV series bought the rights to the book for the premise and (I suspect) not much else. The character names have all been changed, although they mostly have the same relationships and you can compare like-to-like between versions quite easily. Far more important is the change in the general tone. The TV series has quirky, funny moments, but it also has a vein of genuine melancholy running through it. M.O. Walsh's novel, on the other hand, is - dare I say it - a bit breezy.
At first, I thought he, too, was trying to present the characters quirkily. He spends an awful lot of time in each of several characters' heads, but weirdly, you don't seem to get to know most of them any better than you did at the beginning. They don't shift or change or have conflicting emotions. Instead, they seem to have two modes: love and deep empathy, and a sudden, almost child-like hope about the future. Indeed, some of them start to demonstrate a grandiosity that, as I was reading, I anticipated would be punctured like a balloon.
I found the book easy to read, but as I was going along, I questioned what the author was doing. I kept wondering why, although Walsh occasionally tossed out a high high for a character to experience, I wasn't getting any texture from low lows. By only ever allowing his characters to fleetingly question their own judgment, Walsh made them look, in many cases, quite willfully naïve. I kept making excuses for that in my mind, thinking he was setting them up to take a big fall, a big, dark, climax that would show them all up for the rather smug fools they'd been.
That never happened, except in perhaps the most anticlimactic way possible. In fact, the few small moments of darkness are swept up almost as soon as they're introduced. The entire final third of the book never really lands because there isn't a true climax: things appear to be getting worse - but then they're okay. Somehow. Magically. Because of love.
As for the machine that tells people's potential, it almost completely vanishes over the second half of the book, only briefly reemerging at the very end. And that's fine - a catalyst is a catalyst for a reason, and I never really expected to learn what it "meant" or why it was even there in the first place. However, I did expect its influence to keep motivating the story, and at some point, that simply stopped happening. It's as if it just blew away in the breeze.
I can't in good conscience recommend this book unless you like a read that is so cozy it almost feels saccharine. What's so strange to me is that there is plenty of implied content in this book that is neither cozy nor saccharine, but it all just gets glossed over and swept away in favor of slightly smug, cutesy warm feelings. In another novel, a little unrealistic warmth might feel like relief after a look at what pain and loss can allow people to believe. Here, that simply isn't earned, because the author barely scratched the surface.
Show Less
Language
Original language
English
Physical description
400 p.; 8.25 inches
ISBN
0735218501 / 9780735218505