Books: The Big Door Prize by M.O. Walsh (2020)

 

“What would you do if you knew your life's potential? That's the question facing the residents of Deerfield, Louisiana, when the DNAMIX machine appears in their local grocery store. It's nothing to look at, really—it resembles a plain photo booth. But its promise is With just a quick swab of your cheek and two dollars, the device claims to use the science of DNA to tell you your life's potential. With enough credibility to make the townspeople curious, soon the former teachers, nurses, and shopkeepers of Deerfield are abruptly changing course to pursue their destinies as magicians, cowboys, and athletes—including the novel's main characters, Douglas Hubbard and his wife, Cherilyn, who both believed they were perfectly happy until they realized they could dream for more.”

Much like The Portable Door book I read after seeing the trailer of the film version and discovering the book and the film share only bare minimum of connection (like the phrase “based on a true story”, which are always tangible and take “dramatic license” to tell the tale), The Big Door Prize book my M. O. Walsh seems completely disconnected from the TV series version currently airing on Apple+. The book itself is rather odd, and its coda comes directly from every Hallmark movie ever made, but it does have some appeal, some humor that some will enjoy. But what it tells me about the book business these days is that publishers are looking more for easily dull, and average tomes designed to entice the studios to either turn them into films, or like this book, a TV series that spreads its thin concept over a 10 episode season (and which has been picked up for a second season).   

It’s set in the South, which I supposed is designed to give color and charm. But there is never any realness to it –its high concept aspect, the DNAMIX, becomes the books MacGuffin and Walsh decided no one needed to know where it came from and why it’s there. Even the mystery of the popular boys tragic car accident and his the surviving twin brother (the moody one), along with and a priest’s troubled niece turns out to be nothing that spectacular. The married couple and the boy were the most interesting of the characters, they were only ones that seemly were relatable, but by half way through this book, I began to skim pages.