“We each owe a death, there are no exceptions, I know that, but sometimes, oh God, the Green Mile is so long,” (King 422).
Former Prison Guard Paul Edgecomb recalls his time working on the Green Mile, a block in Cold Mountain Penitentiary for inmates on death row. Paul has met a lot of people during his time working at Cold Mountain, but none so memorable as John Coffey, a man accused of committing a disturbing and brutal crime but who is much more than he seems.
Okay, I’ll admit it, I watched the movie of The Green Mile before reading the book. It was a few years ago, pandemic time if my memory serves it right. I watched a lot of movies at that time and my dad suggested this classic and it was so worth it. When my sister found the book at the library I knew that I finally had to read it to see if there were any differences between the two, but also to be able to experience this sad and wonderful story again.
It’s amazing how close the book and movie are to one another, but of course there’s some things that only books can do. I thought Paul was a great narrator to follow. Kind, effected by his job working on Death Row but somehow seeing the humanity in people who have committed truly heinous acts. It was something I wasn’t really expecting but which made sense to the character, the story as a whole, and life itself in a way I’d never really thought about. John Coffey is a simple, sweet man who just wants to help. He doesn’t know why he can do what he do, he knows little about his own past except for a few sad lines that hint at a backstory too sad to even write about. You can’t help but love John Coffey and wish his ending could have been different.
The story is tragic, it’s one of King’s more tender works as he critiques religion, racism, and our own biases. I thought it was interesting that the book was originally serialized into six installments, and while reading it all bound together you can see where one section ended and the other began. I think this would have been great to read in a serialized format when it was originally released.
My one criticism is some inconsistency on how Coffey’s miracle works on others. I won’t spoil it, but certain characters have something happen to them and others don’t and there’s no clear answer why. I know that Coffey’s abilities are a mystery throughout the novel, but some consistency with how these abilities affected others would have been nice.
The Green Mile is worth every bit of praise it gets. Tragic and full of deep caring, if you’ve ever been hesitant to start Stephen King because of his horror background, try starting here. King isn’t all about horror, just about showing the different ways that fear can live.
Publication: January 1 1996
Publisher: Scribner
Pages: 422 pages (Paperback)
Source: Library
Genre: Fiction, Horror, Mystery
My Rating: ⛤⛤⛤⛤
Summary:
Welcome to Cold Mountain Penitentiary, home to the Depression-worn men of E Block. Convicted killers all, each awaits his turn to walk “the Green Mile,” the lime-colored linoleum corridor leading to a final meeting with Old Sparky, Cold Mountain’s electric chair. Prison guard Paul Edgecombe has seen his share of oddities over the years working the Mile, but he’s never seen anything like John Coffey—a man with the body of a giant and the mind of a child, condemned for a crime terrifying in its violence and shocking in its depravity. And in this place of ultimate retribution, Edgecombe is about to discover the terrible, wondrous truth about John Coffey—a truth that will challenge his most cherished beliefs….
Sarah O'Connor 