INTRO
The debate goes ever on- what is Stephen King's greatest book? To many, primarily publicity-hungry critics, the question is a pointless one; each of his books are bloated, overblown and over-rated. But to the rest of us, those of us with the vision and the patience to recognise a great author at work, it is a great, and worthwhile debate.
Unfortunately, The Green Mile will never be considered his best. This may be to do with the way it was first published- in installments, making it not just one book but one book in several parts. This was a good idea for several reasons but, as the author says himself, it was more or less a novelty.
Then again, it may be to do with the fact that the movie adaption was nothing short of brilliant, and popular- meaning that many will have seen the movie and won't be bothered reading the book. Hell, many won't even be aware that it was a book. To the former, I plead: read the book, it'll be definately worth your while. To the latter, it is a book, and a brilliant one. Which leads me nicely on to...
THE REVIEW
Set during the Depression in the Deep South, Paul Edgecombe is the 'bull-goose screw' at death row in Cold Mountain Penitentiary. Except there is no death row, there is only E Block, and there is no Last Mile- just the Green Mile. Paul has seen to 78 executions during his time on E Block, but not he nor any of his fellow prison-guards have seen anything like John Coffey, a big, brutal, black man convicted of murdering and raping twin girls. But is John all that he seems? Or is there more to him then anyone could have imagined? And do you even care?. Well, if you have any conciouns at all, you will.
And therein lies The Green Mile's brilliance- the characters. They are both well judged and delivered so that everything they say and do seems completely natural. Not only this, but everything feels so real, which is mainly to do with the charcters. After all, if you had a boring cast of badly-rounded characters, the plot would hardly sing, would it?
The setting is also well written and the overall atmosphere that runs throughout the book is excellent. Told through the eyes of Paul himself, his voice is distinctive yet understated, and you can almost hear his southern drawl in your head. That's how natural it is.
To be honest, there's not much more I can say without going into plot specifics, and with a book that is so full of things, giving the plot away in any shape or form would be a mortal sin. The only criticism I'd level just slightly at the book is that at times it does suffer from Stephen King syndrome- overly long, occasionally babbling prose, espescially when read as one book. But these times are few and you'll probably be too absorbed to notice.
To sum up, this is brilliant. Got that? Brilliant. Memorable, yet understated, mystical yet ordinary, dark and heavy, yet unenduring. Read it. Now.
Gender:
Points: 890
Reviews: 43