The Green Mile by Stephen King - A Review

I said I would never read the The Green Mile. After watching the film many years ago and it still stays with me. I knew what would be in store for me and I said never. However when I saw a copy sat in my local favourite charity shop for 99p how could I say no? and it was with serious hesitation that I started to read it but I did and I am so glad that I did. 

I am not a stranger to Mr King's work and hand on heart I love nearly everything I have read from him. Firestarter being the first book I ever read and re-read (coming up 3 times now) so I knew I was in good hands but I also knew that he would hold nothing back and I would be so tightly bound in his grasp that I knew I could break at any moment and I did. 

The story it's self is "A first-person narrative told by Paul Edgecombe, the novel switches between Paul as an old man in the Georgia Pines nursing home sharing his story with fellow resident Elaine Connelly in 1996, and his time in 1932 as the block supervisor of the Cold Mountain Penitentiary death row, nicknamed "The Green Mile" for the color of the floor's linoleum. This year marks the arrival of John Coffey, a 6 ft 8 in powerfully built black man who has been convicted of raping and murdering two small white girls" Wiki 

I strapped myself in (bad choice of words!) and held on and let Mr King do his thing. It was tense, it was beautiful and as ever for Mr King it was seamless. I too took on traits of Paul Edgecombe and felt sorry for the inmates especially Eduard "Del" Delacroix when it was his turn to walk the mile and that was all Mr Kings writing because I doubt very much that in real life I could even feel a tiny bit of remorse for that man given what had led him to old sparky. 

of course for me this book is all about John Coffey like the the drink but not spelt the same way. His story was the reason I did not want to pick up the book. The injustice of it all, the Tom Robinson of it all. I was angry. The Novel showed me even more than the film (although that was a long time ago) that John was innocent and the evidence was right there but no one cared to look. Sigh. 

It's a tense story, it's a horrible story beautifully written and with love and care to each character. Mr King got me to care which you would think is a prerequisite for a novel but some people do miss that mark. 

100% I would recommend this book.