The Green Mile: the complete serial novel
By Stephen King
Introduction by Librarian
"The Green Mile", a fantastic non-horror Stephen King Novel. It is a captivating and memorable story, you will get harder and harder to forget.
“Time takes it all, whether you want it to or not.”
"The Green Mile" refers to the lime-colored linoleum corridor leading to the death row cells in the Cold Mountain Penitentiary to the electric chair. The story is in a form of memoir, after 60 years from 1932, narrated in the nursing home by Paul Edgecomb, the supervisor of the cell block E and responsible for ending the lives of the inmates.
John Coffey, a giant black man with 6’6” tall, is convicted of murdering two white twin girls and sent to cell block E. Paul and the other wardens later on see John isn’t like a killer who commits such serious crime, but rather than a “saint” who saves the lives of others. In fact, John Coffey is a man with extraordinary supernatural healing powers, by inhauls the illness of the persons to himself and cures them. He is the one who always sacrifices himself for the wellness of others. However, his great power is also his great curse. John Coffey always lives in the dark and he is always scared. His soul is never relieved until he finally sits on the electric chair.
One of the aspects that stands out to me is that Stephen King would speak in great details about seemingly random things which later revealed to be important to the story. It makes you question where things would go. As the book goes on, it only gets more exciting and the supernatural nature I enjoy, which seems unbelievable. The fact that the story focuses around death row and the inmates being executed through the electric chair also brings up the ethics of death sentence. At times Paul would question whether it makes him a murderer due to the fact that he is being the deaths of the men who walked the green mile. Before John is going to be electrocuted, Paul asked him: “On the day of my judgment, when I stand before God, and He asks me why did I kill one of his true miracles, what am I gonna say? That it was my job? My job?”
"The Green Mile" consists of 465 pages, if you believe in miracles or spiritual power, this story will not disappoint you. This novel also has a film adaptation with the same name premiered in 1999 with Tom Hanks casted as Paul Edgecomb and the film won numerous awards. If you do not want to read 465 pages, you might choose to watch the film with a similar plot and story. However, you will miss the writing power of Stephen King as John Coffey was almost silent in the first 300 pages but you will feel his existence in the mile.