The Big Door Prize

May 1, 2020
When a photo booth-type machine in the grocery store starts spitting out predictions of people's true callings, the residents of Deerfield, Louisiana, are deeply affected. "In the way that aspiring novelists might like to imagine their work someday being discussed in a sophomore literature class...or the way philosophers like to chart the evolution of thought from Socrates to Plato to Jay-Z...Douglas also liked to imagine himself one day becoming part of some traceable lineage." Douglas Hubbard, a happily married high school history teacher, has a fantasy of becoming a famous jazz trombone player. He's even signed up for lessons. Unlike the other dreamers in his little town, he came up with this idea all by himself, on his 40th birthday. His wife and many of his neighbors, on the other hand, are carrying around little blue slips of paper produced by a machine called the DNAMIX. They say things like ROYALTY, CARPENTER, LOVER, and MAGICIAN, and because of them the school principal, the mayor, and many others in Deerfield are quitting their jobs, buying costumes, and planning major life changes. There's something a little strange about Walsh's follow-up to his remarkable first novel, My Sunshine Away (2015). On one hand, it has a warm, folksy, Fannie Flagg-type feeling, complete with John Prine references galore (the title is one) and a goofy touch of magic. On the other hand, like the author's debut, it addresses very serious and disturbing issues. It opens with the death of a teenager, as experienced by his twin, and later adds intimations of a school shooting, a gang rape, and a terrible revenge plot. Both aspects are well handled, but do they really go together? When you get a bereaved dad dressed up in a ludicrous cowboy outfit intervening to rescue his son from being gunned down by the police you have to wonder. An eccentric, well-written small-town novel jam-packed with appealing characters and their dreams.

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Starred review from May 15, 2020
The residents of Deerfield, Louisiana, were happily going about their days until an odd little machine called the DNAMIX appeared at Johnson's Grocery. Looking like a pared-down version of a photo booth, the contraption nevertheless had transformative powers. For $2 and a cheek swab, wishful thinkers learned their true life calling. That's how Cherilyn Hubbard discovered she was destined to be royalty, not the stay-at-home, Etsy-crafting wife of the high-school history teacher. Her husband, Douglas, is openly disdainful of such whimsy, distracted by a potential career change of his own making. Likewise, his student, Jacob, also has no desire to further alter his life after his twin brother, Toby, died in a drunk-driving accident. But Toby's ex-girlfriend, Trina, is trying to involve Jacob in a revenge plot against the classmates who were with Toby when he died. As each character comes to recognize the satisfaction of living in the moment, Jacob sagely realizes that everyone on this planet is just one stranger's decision away from eternity. It's hard to believe that Walsh (My Sunshine Away, 2015) wrote this moving novel long before the COVID-19 pandemic, for there is eerie prescience in its soulful message that gratitude and grace are not to be taken for granted and that life can be upended in an instant.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)

Starred review from July 20, 2020
Walsh (My Sunshine Away) skirts the edge of fantasy in this playful and touching tale set in small-town Deerfield, La. After a mysterious, photo booth–size machine called the DNAMIX appears at the town’s grocery store, word of its supposed powers of prognostication spreads rapidly. Customers are instructed to swab the inside of their cheek, and a readout will appear telling them what “your body and mind are capable of doing.” Many of the townspeople indulge, including high school history teacher and aspiring trombonist Douglas and his wistful homemaker wife, Cherilyn. Meanwhile, introverted 16-year-old Jacob, recovering from the recent death of his twin brother, Toby, in a car accident, is manipulated by Toby’s ex-girlfriend Trina, who blames the whole school for Toby’s death and wants revenge. As Jacob worries he’ll be roped into Trina’s violent revenge plan, Douglas and Cherilyn’s “happy and uncomplicated marriage” begins to fall apart after Douglas, whose DNAMIX readout offers no surprises (“Whistler. Teacher”) discovers Cherilyn’s, which indicates her “life station” will be “royalty.” Walsh follows these characters with humor and compassion, leading them to an ending readers will find surprising and satisfying. The novel transcends its quirky premise, offering many insights on the mysteries of the human heart. Agent: Renee Zuckerbrot, Massie & McQuilkin Literary.

February 1, 2020

It looks ordinary, but the mysterious DNAMIX machine that ends up in a Louisiana grocery store promises to tell users their life's true potential for two bucks and a quick cheek swab. Now everyone rushes in, thrilled to discover that they really ought to be cowboys or magicians, and even happily married Douglas and Cherilyn Hubbard start questioning their life. Walsh's debut, My Sunshine Away, has sold over 100,000 copies across all formats.

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