DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
1. The Big Door Prize is a heartfelt novel
6. Why do you think the townspeople were
about one of the most fundamental
so willing to believe their results from the
questions we ask ourselves: Who am I truly
DNAMIX machine? Would you be willing to
meant to be? Have you ever asked yourself
believe a readout that said you had already
this? Was there ever a time in your life when
reached your potential, as Douglas’s did?
you felt yourself at a similar crossroads?
Do you think people need to believe there is more out there for them?
2. Douglas and Cherilyn have settled into their lives and their marriage and seem
7. The source of Trina’s hurt and anger is
quite happy. Why do you think they reacted
much deeper than it first appears, and
to their Potential Life Stations as they did?
she spends much of the novel processing her trauma in a very focused way. Were you
3. Jacob struggles with loneliness after the loss of his twin brother, Toby, and finds a connection with Trina. What do you think draws him to Trina? How does their
surprised by her plan for revenge, or was it understandable? What did you think about her logic for who should be held responsible?
relationship impact Jacob’s memory of
8. In looking at the relationship between
Toby and his own sense of self?
Douglas and Cherilyn, what does the novel suggest may be the qualities of a strong
4. The Big Door Prize features several of the townspeople of Deerfield. How did this style of narration impact your reading
marriage or relationship? What types of thoughts or actions can pull it apart?
experience? Did it allow you to connect to
9. If you were ever given the chance to
some characters more than others? If so,
discover your life’s potential, would you
which characters did you relate to the most,
want to know? What do you think your
and why?
results would be?
5. Father Pete is often presented as a voice
10. While reading, where did you think the
of reason in the novel. Talk a bit about his
machine came from? Were you surprised by
relationships with the other characters, in
its origins?
particular Douglas and Trina. How does his own background impact his place in the Deerfield community?
11. What do you think is next for these characters? For Douglas and Cherilyn? Jacob and his father? Father Pete and Trina?
The lyrics and songs that inspired THE BIG DOOR PRIZE “A Crooked Piece of Time”
Chapter 5
This John Prine song, from Bruised Orange (1978), feels more prescient to me now than ever before. “It’s a crooked piece of time that we live in,” goes the chorus. Just look around. I mean, no shit!
“Level on the Level” Chapter 6 “Grandpa Was a Carpenter” (Sweet Revenge, 1973) is one of the first Prine songs I ever heard. When I recognized I had a character who wants to be a carpenter, I couldn’t stop thinking of this lyric. I’ve always thought it to be a sort of benchmark for being a good person. You have to be level on the level. Prine often guides me in this way. And, of course, we know why Grandpa voted for Eisenhower.
“Oh My Stars” Chapter 8 This snippet is from “Linda Goes to Mars” (German Afternoons, 1986), which Bill Murray referenced as being the first thing to make him laugh when he was stuck in a long depression. In my novel, it references masturbation. Sorry.
“I Hate It When That Happens to Me” Chapter 11 One of my favorite Prine lyrics of all time comes from this song (Fair & Square, 2005) and displays what I see as his remarkable ability to match an odd visual detail with a human emotion, as it starts: “Well, I once knew a man who was going insane. He let love chase him right up a tree.” Whenever I think of that man in a tree, and all the crazy ways love has made me act, I feel some kindred emotion.
“I’m Taking a Walk, I’m Just Getting By” Chapter 12 Well, in this chapter, a character is just taking a walk so it might be a bit on the nose. Still, it’s a great song, off Fair & Square, 2005. On April 7th, when I found out he had passed away, this was the first tune I put on my headphones as I went to wander the neighborhood with my dog.
“They Ought to Name a Drink After You” Chapter 13 The novel has a scene with men at a bar. I mean, what would you do? (Diamonds in the Rough, 1972)
“Up in the Morning, Work Like a Dog” Chapter 15 The opening lines to “It’s A Big Old Goofy World” (The Missing Years, 1991), which Prine said came about as an attempt to get as many similes in a song as he could. Out of curiosity, I counted, and it uses the words “like” or “as” 19 times (19!) yet still ends up tender enough to be a motto for life itself.
“My Picture in a Picture Show”
Chapter 16
This song is most notable for me as an example of Prine’s ability to turn seemingly nonsensical lyrics into incantations in my head. How else to explain the way that every time I see a menu with the words “hamburgers” and “cheeseburgers” on it, I feel compelled to say aloud, “Wilbur and Orville Wright”? I imagine this has confused my children for years.
“There’s Flies in the Kitchen, I Can Hear Them A-Buzzin’ ”
Chapter 17
If a listener doesn’t feel what this woman in “Angel from Montgomery” feels when she wonders about her husband: “How the hell can a person go to work in the morning, come home in the evening, and have nothing to say?” then that listener might be dead. In the novel, our main female character has a visitor in her kitchen as well.
“The Caravan of Fools” Chapter 18 In the book, this chapter has Douglas, our main male character, confronting his class of high school students and nearly losing his mind at their naivete. The chapter, I hope, is funny. The song (The Tree of Forgiveness, 2018) is not at all funny.
“Never Will Go Out of Fashion, Always Will Look Good on You”
Chapter 19
“Glory of True Love” (Fair & Square, 2005) is the type of bald and unapologetically sappy love song I’ve come to have great respect for. I can imagine any young writer or musician thinking the phrase “true love” too cliché to write. One of Prine’s most impressive skills, though, was taking this type of cliché and earning it. Why not write about true love? After all, he says, “Old Faithful’s just a fountain, compared to the glory of true love.” It sounds like pretty big deal.
“Practically Everyone Was There” Chapter 20 This is from one of my absolute favorite Prine songs, “Lake Marie” (Lost Dogs and Mixed Blessings, 1995). I recall a time when I sat on my back porch with a friend of mine, a man in his late twenties, and realized he was crying as we listened to this song on my phone. He was having trouble with his girlfriend at the time, a woman who’d just been diagnosed with ovarian cancer, and can’t be judged for this show of emotion. The song’s full sound, sad story, and simple chorus get me every time as well. Still, this particular lyric reminds me of how skillfully Prine allowed some levity around the fringes of dark moments. In telling a story about police discovering the dead naked bodies of two young girls near the campground where he and his wife were trying to save their marriage, Prine describes the scene by saying, “The dogs were barking as the cars were parking, the loan sharks were sharking, and the narcs were . . . narcin’. Practically everyone was there!” The narrator’s attempt to get the listener to understand the entirety of the scene, as if to empathize with him at its oddity, cracks me up every time. I mean, practically everyone was there! Amazing.
“We Ate Turkey and Pistols”
Chapter 21
One of the most memorable lyrics of his career, to my mind, from “Christmas in Prison” (Sweet Revenge, 1973). Any Prine fan knows what those pistols were made of. In my novel, though, a character is only eating turkey.
“You Forgive Us and We’ll Forgive You” Chapter 22 Well, the novel has a scene in a church confessional.
“The Yield Went Around, and Around and Around” Chapter 23 Another lyric that comes up in my daily life. Has there ever been a better way to describe the excruciating politeness of a small-town fourway stop? (Sweet Revenge, 1973)
know. She is a mystery to me, my wife. She is such a great mystery.
“Little Pictures Have Big Ears”
Chapter 26
A lyric that almost refuses to give up its literal meaning, this was one of the first lines that made Prine stand out to me. “Sam Stone” (John Prine, 1971) is an undeniable masterpiece. I probably would have just retired if I ever wrote something that good. So glad he didn’t.
“Ain’t It Funny How an Old Broken Bottle Can Look Just Like a Diamond Ring” Chapter 27 “Far From Me” (John Prine, 1971) is also a clinic in storytelling. Just three verses and a universal truth, “I guess a question ain’t really a question when you know the answer, too.” It’s a perfect song.
“We’ll Record It Live, It’s No Jive”
“You’re Up One Day and the Next You’re Down” Chapter 28
The chapter has our main character finally getting a chance to do what he has always fantasized about, which is jamming with some real jazz musicians. It’s the time of his life (Sweet Revenge, 1973).
“That’s the Way that the World Goes Round” (Bruised Orange, 1978) is such a mixture of comedy and pathos that you can’t help but laugh at how pathetic we are. It doesn’t get any better than the man in sitting in the bathtub, counting his toes, “naked as the eyes of a clown.”
Chapter 24
“Got the Windows Rolled Up, But My Mind Rolled Down”
Chapter 25
This is one of my wife’s favorite Prine lyrics, which makes me wonder how often she herself feels this way. Every time we sit on the back porch and sing “Long Monday” (Fair & Square, 2005), she says, “God, I love that line,” as if nothing could possibly speak to her more. I don’t
“Saddle in the Rain”
Chapter 29
I love this song, not only because it’s the only time I’ve ever heard the word “afterneath” but just because of how scorching the lyrics are. “Peace of mind? Try spending the night some time, all alone in a frozen room, afterneath you’ve lain your saddle in the rain.”
“Souvenirs” Chapter 30 This chapter has our main character on the precipice of perhaps losing his wife to another man, going through all of the things they’ve collected and saved in their home over time. Hard to find a better chorus than Prine and Goodman singing, “It took me years, to get those souvenirs, and I don’t know how they slipped away from me.”
“You’ve Got Gold” Chapter 31 A love song that makes no attempt to hide in irony or in sarcasm (The Missing Years, 1991). The narrator loves this woman. He believes she had gold inside of her. He believes he has it inside of him, too. It is as simple as it is powerful.
“You and Me, Sitting in the Back of My Memory” Chapter 32 This (“Long Monday”) is one of the few songs that get multiple mentions in the novel. See above the way it makes me think of my wife. I can’t be blamed for hitting repeat.
“Your Boy Is Here” Chapter 33 This line is from “Mexican Home” (Sweet Revenge, 1973). The heat lightning burning the sky like alcohol, the car lights passing over the kitchen wall, all the vivid details of the song combine with its strange chorus of “Mama dear, your boy is here, far across the sea, waiting for that sacred core that burns inside of me” to create some sort of inexplicable emotion in my heart. I love the song.
“That’s What Happens When Two Worlds Collide”
Page 34
Some of my favorite Prine recordings are covers he sang as duets on albums like In Spite of Ourselves (1999) and For Better, or Worse (2016). So, although he didn’t originally write this, it felt fitting to nod to the many times he also honored his favorite artists by covering their songs, most often with women who had much better voices than he did.
“If You Need a Fool Who Loves You . . . I Know One”
Chapters 36 & 37
This is a Prine cover of Charley Pride’s song “I Know One.” I split this lyric into two chapters as it the moment when a husband and wife come back together, each chapter told in their different perspectives, though they are both headed to the same place. Just like the song.
“In Spite of Ourselves”
Chapter 38
Going back to the idea of structure, once I realized that this particular song (In Spite of Ourselves, 1999) was the basic tone I was spending four years of my life writing around, I figured it made sense to end the novel this way, to connect the last chapter with the title as if the whole book was contained in that world. I hope it worked.
The other dozen or so references to his work are a bit harder to find. Little mentions of characters named Donald and Lydia, for example, and some others. If you are kind enough to read the book and find them in there, please write me a note. We can raise a glass and share a toast.
To Handsome Johnny. To all of us lovesick fools.
THE HANDSOME JOHNNY “They Ought to Name a Drink After You” John Prine’s Signature Drink
Ingredients 1–2 ounces vodka John recommends Red Smirnoff (not Blue)
Ginger ale, enough to top off the glass John recommends diet ginger ale, not regular. You don’t want it too sweet.
Lemon wedge (in the summertime) or lime wedge (in the wintertime)
Directions Fill a cocktail glass with ice. Pour in vodka. Pour in diet ginger ale. Stir and drop the lemon or lime in from approximately 6” above. Do not squeeze it.
Source: distillerytrail.com/blog/how-to-make-john-prines-favorite-drink-the-handsome-johnny-cocktail