The Green Mile: The Complete Serial Novel

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Summary: Another brilliant accomplishment from Stephen King.
Review: Stephen King never ceases to amaze me. After writing dozens of books throughout the years, you would imagine that eventually, he would have to "recycle" some of his previously used plots. Wrong! With "The Green Mile: A Novel in Six Parts", Stephen King once again has proven that his well of ideas is not in any danger of running dry. "The Green Mile" mixes murder, mystery, and a little bit of magic together, and the result is a story like none you've ever come across before. By the end of "The Green Mile", you WILL believe in the unbelievable!

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Summary: It was a moving book, with great written content.
Review: In this book, you would have what you would expect from a person such as Stephen King.Even though it's fiction, it shows you how we can make mistakes. It was a great,sort of funny in some parts and it leaves you with a special feeling. I would reccommend this book for someone looking for a new horror book,(It's really not that frightening),and a good murder case that has many mysteries as well as clues and of course, surprises. I would also reccomend this book for any one looking for a great book

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Summary: Homesick for the characters
Review: There have been two books that, as I finished reading them, caused me to feel a kind of hoesickness for the characters- The Stand and The Green Mile. After reading both, I felt left out, as I closed the books, as I could no longer be a part of their lives. That is the power of King's writing, to make to reader so much a part of the action,so much a part of the story, that there is a separation anxiety at the close of the story. The characters are so believable, so real that they become parts of our lives. The Green Mile did something that politics, religion, and society could never do for me; it made me think deeply about capital punishment and what it truly means in our culture. King does deliver a powerful, uncomfortable punch and granted, many parts of The Green Mile are heart-breaking (the happy parts do not make up for the heart-string tugging, but King, as always delivers the final, biggest punch of all in a manner that he only can do...he gives us hope that good can really overcome bad. The Green Mile is NOT for non-thinkers, one cannot take this too simply or lightly; it's deep drame and a message to humanity. Pop-horror? Pulp-fiction? Not at all; it is a dark look into what may lie inside of us all.The Green Mile is a long, scary walk with plenty of time for reflection and tears. And I miss Paul so much, almost as much as my lonesomeness for Mr.Jingles!

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Summary: One of King's best
Review: The Green Mile is one book you won't want to put down. As King goes in-depth into the lives of the men on the mile, the reader can't help but feel as though he is actually there, witnessing these events as they happen. It is nearly impossible to hate this book. I bought the complete set one afternoon, and I was finished in less than three hours. I have recommended this book to every one of my friends, and each of them has loved it as much as I did

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Summary: Great, Compelling Psycho-Drama
Review: King proves with "The Green Mile" that he remains, after 20 years, at the peak of his career. Never before, save for "It" and "The Stand", has King made us feel so passionately about the characters he has drawn for us. The story of injustice, compassion, and dignity ranks as one of the most powerful stories in a long time. With "The Green Mile", King gives us his best, again

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Summary: A very touching, hauntingly beautiful book
Review: I was deeply touched by this book. It is captivating and engrossing. It took me all of two days to finish. It was hard for me to actually put the book down. The story is wonderfully written and the characters are very well developed, almost so that you would think they were real people. This book made me laugh and cry all at the same time. It is different than any other Stephen King book I have ever read in the sense that is not filled with the usual horror found in most of King's works, but it none the less a haunting read, just not in the way you would think. It is one of the best books I have read in years. I would highly recommend it.

Rating:
Summary: Stephen is The King
Review: Great character descriptions, beautiful use of the English language, a fluid plot and an all-around masterpiece.... that does not begin to describe what I felt about "The Green Mile." The prison series by Stephen King kept me on the edge of my seat, anticipating what wonder was beyond the border known as the next page. My heart raced as each convict was being led down the shoddy hallway known as the green mile, and I felt every movement as if I was right there.
My favorite part of the story was when John Coffey worked his magic on Mr. Jingles. Mr. Jingles, the adorable little rodent who stole everybody's heart (except for Percy's), had been stepped on. John simply cradled him in his giant hands and seemed to breathe the life right back into Jingles. It brought a smile to my face when I read about the gentle giant's softer side.
While there was no downsides to the series, the sequence which made me the most upset was when the bombastic Frenchman Eduard Delacroix was burned alive by the "accidental" malfunctioning of the electric chair operated by Percy Wetmore. While the brief display of gruesome tragedy was not as high on the Stephen King gore-o-meter as usual, it did make my stomach turn over just a bit.
New readers of Stephen King will find a whole new world, and the loyal fan base of his will not be disappointed by reading "The Green Mile." It seems as though the enigmatic author has struck gold without overusing his literary pawns of pain. Five electric-charged stars for "The Green Mile."

Rating:
Summary: A solidly good read, very entertaining
Review: Former prison guard and nursing home resident Paul Edgecombe tells the story of John Coffey, a prisoner that he looked after back when he was the head guard on Death Row (the "Green Mile") in a Depression-Era penitentiary. Coffey is a giant of a man, but simple-minded, and has been convicted of raping and killing two young girls. There are lots of story lines, ranging from a severe urinary tract infection to a magical mouse, but the main show involves Coffey's supposed guilt, and a special power that he seems to possess. I won't spoil any more of the plot.

I read this book as the chapter books were originally published, and I really found that that publishing format hindered my enjoyment of the book. Not only was each of the six installments subjected to a summing up of the circumstances of the narrator, but the brevity of the individual segments just didn't let me immerse myself in the story. By the time each segment came out, I had forgotten, or at least become emotionally detached from, the characters.

This complete novel is, in my opinion, much better than reading the installments, but it still has some faults compared to King's best work. All of King's novels have a type of character who is a straight shooter, and a moral person, and brave, and ready to mix it up if honor so dictates. This character type is presented too abundantly in this work for my taste, and I just felt like a lot of the devices were over-the-top in asking for our involvement. For a setting and group of characters that presents so many opportunities for moral shading, I just felt like there was too much black and white.

That said, this novel has a lot going for it. There are several interlocking stories and subplots, and they all gel together very nicely. I also found the ending, which takes place in the frame story at the nursing home, to be unusually satisfying. And the narrator, Paul Edgecomb, really is a very likable fellow, and seeing him at two different stages of his life really makes the reader think about aging, and the elderly.

So many of King's novels deal with a battle between spiritual forces of good and evil, but this book almost seems to be more about magic, and the change is refreshing. There are fewer explanations for the phenomena that we see, but that preserves an air of mystery and wonder about them happening. Sometimes explanations are nice, but I think that in this case, King makes a wise decision by leaving some things open for interpretation.

I would certainly recommend this book over the works of almost any other author in the horror genre, but if you're going to read everything in the King canon, you can leave this one until about halfway through.


Rating:
Summary: One of the greatest novels ever written
Review: The Green Mile is a novel that is hard to put down! The moment it opens up you'll be hooked and you'll soon find the pages won't stop turning. Where has the time gone? you'll wonder. I'll tell you where: immersed in Stephen King's novel, "The Green Mile."

The Green Mile opens up with Paul Edgecombe telling his own story about how he was a guard at Cold Mountain. He was in charge of deathrow, what he often called "The Green Mile." In his time he sentenced many people to their death, but no one struck him the way John Coffey did. Coffey is in for raping and murdering two little girls, and the only words he has to say for it is, "I tried to take it back, but it was too late." But Paul doesn't seem to feel John is of any threat, and soon John comes to show there's much more to him than meets the eye.

By far this is the most character driven novel I've read in a long time. Paul comes off as an enlightning character who has seen a miracle, while John comes off as a miracle himself. This book is driven by character development and it drives without swerving off the road.

The Green Mile also has a shocking, yet thought provoking, revelation about life. If the characters don't make you enjoy this book, that revelation will.

The delivery of the book is just as good. Written in first person, King does more than just introduce us to Paul, he befriends us with Paul as he shares his story.

The Green Mile is a fun and exciting read, with a climax so suprising and inspiring. This is by far one of the best books King has ever written.

Rating:
Summary: "I tried to take it back, but it was too late"
Review: I've always been a fan of Stephen King, so when I saw this book I knew I had to check it out. With every page I read I continued to like this book more and more. It is about a man named Paul Edgecombe who works in section E at Cold Mountain prison facility. It is called the green mile because of the faded green linolium floor, leading to "Old Sparky", the electric chair. One day, a giant black man named John Coffey- like the drink but not spelled the same- comes to E block for a disturbing and vile crime. In this cold dank prison Paul Edgecomba is about to discover the terrible and wonderful truth about John Coffey.

This book is more suspense then horror, and is an excellent read for anyone.