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The Green Mile: The Complete Serial Novel

The Green Mile: The Complete Serial Novel

List Price: $7.99
Your Price: $7.19
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: I'm crying from laughter and sympathy! Such a good book!
Review: How does King do it? How does he manage to sell quadrillions of novels and retain his creativity? His talent? His ability to surprise and suspend?

This is the first book of his I've read, and I must say I'm thoroughly impressed. I assumed he'd be writing books just to sell them---writing exactly what his costumers want to read. But no. He made a statement with this book: a powerful one. He proved that his originality wasn't lost with all the mass-produced, marketed novels. He's really just that good.

Regardless of whether you've seen the movie or not, this book is a definite must-read. I HAD to get my hands on it after seeing the movie (three times in a row!). It's so easy to read, but that's not to say it's simple-minded. It deals with common aspects of everyday life, as well as extraordinary miracles. Obviously if you want a summary of the plot, you can read the other reviews. This is just me telling you you HAVE TO READ IT!!

Caution yourself though: if you don't know anything about the film or book, don't listen to what people have to say about it. It'll make things all the more enjoyable to discover for yourself what happens and why.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: King is the right word in this case
Review: Not a fan of Stephen King generally I have to say I found this book wonderful. Not a horror story but a grippping thriller with some supernatural moments Green Mile strays from King's normal output. The green mile is the carpet running down death row, the book tells the story of it's inmates and in particular the giant John Coffey accused of raping and murdering two young girls. The suspense and drama is spellbinding, the characters are so brilliant you feel as though you know them personally. The book is narrated in the first person by Paul Edgecombe who is the supervisor of the cell block, the narration adds further to the sense of being there, being a spectator that makes you part of every event. There is everything in this book:-life, death, love, hate, salvation, spirituality, sacrifice, morality and even God -everything that is important. The Green Mile made me cry which no other book has ever done, I find myself thinking about it often, I also revisit it frequently which is very rare for me. Given the quality of this novel I cannot believe the usual work King puts out, I guess money talks. If I had to pick 5 books to take on a desert Island this would be one of them. I just cannot praise it highly enough, the only disappointing thing is it eventually ends, even if you read it very slowly.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Absolutely Riveting
Review: I like to listen to books on tape while traveling. This one has seen me through two long trips and each time I was so riveted to the book, I hardly realized I was driving.

I saw the movie before I listened to the book. I am glad I did. The movie was type cast very well, and I could easily visualize the characters and the setting when later listening to the audio book. While there are admittedly times when the book drags, on whole, it is far more intriquing, and captivating than the movie. It allowed me into the mind of Paul, the main character, and I could almost feel the gut-wrenching pain he experienced while reliving his time on the "Mile". I felt like I was in the room and could actually smell the stench of the execution gone bad; it was so descriptively agonizing I wanted to turn the tape off, but couldn't. I could almost smell the breath of Mr. Jingles, the mouse who loved the peppermint candies. I giggled with joy when Percy, the saddistic guard, wet himself.

But above all else, the ending of this book is.....awesome. That is the only way I can describe it. When I first heard the last few minutes of the book, the hair on the back of my neck stood on end, and a shiver ran down my spine. It caused me to pause and think for a very, very long time. I have listened to just the last few minutes of the book several times since, and each time the effect on me is the same.

This is an extremely long book on tape. But if you like to listen to audio books, especially while you travel, and you like a mystery with a good plot and a descriptive author,(not to mention one hell of a message), you won't go wrong here.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: One of King's Best
Review: One of Stephen King's best novels, this book dwells in an environment that some writers try to avoid. It questions life, death, and most of all God. King touches on topics that make readers stir, but also makes them think. The characters are so well drawn that we feel WITH them rather than FOR them. It is a novel that cleverly and ingeniously illustrates the struggles we face when choosing between moral decisions and rational decisions.

I purchased this novel when it was sold book by book. I had the pleasure of feeling the excruciating anticipation, waiting for each book to hit the shelf. It was well worth the wait.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: The Complete Serial Novel
Review: Set in 1932, in an Alabama State prison called Cold Mountain Penitentiary, "The Green Mile" follows Paul Edgecombe, the storyteller and superintendent on the E Block, as he flashes back on the year of John Coffey, Eduard Delacroix, and William "Billy the Kid" Wharton--three prison inmates that would leave great impressions on Paul's memory for decades to come.

Yet the story revolves primarily around John Coffey, an enormous, simple-minded black man who has been charged with the rape-murder of two nine-year-old twin girls, Cora and Kathe Detterick. Yet it's not this tragedy that is the focal point of the book--it's John's otherworldly ability to cure people with his hands (like he does with Paul's urinary infection and Melinda Moores' inoperable brain tumor), as well as animals, like Mr. Jingles (Eduard's talented pet mouse), who is severely injured by a cruel prison guard, Percy Wetmore--the one character most readers will wholeheartedly agree should have been on the other side of the bars on E Block.

"The Green Mile" had initially been published back in '96 in chapbook form, one book coming out per month. (This was also seen with John Saul's The Blackstone Chronicles around the same time, a serialization I also liked.) This novel contains all six parts (#1: "The Two Dead Girls", #2: "The Mouse on the Mile", #3: "Coffey's Hands", #4: "The Bad Death of Eduard Delacroix", #5: "Night Journey", and #6: "Coffey on the Mile"), word-for-word, as far as I can tell, except for the foreword letter that appeared in the first chapbook, and the afterword in the last chapbook. Putting all six parts together, "The Green Mile" equals more than 500 pages, which is really nothing considering King can crank a book out twice that size. But what I'm getting at is that it's cheaper--and more convenient--to buy The Green Mile in this novel version than the individual chapbooks.

A few years later, the book was made into a movie, which I actually saw before reading the book. Tom Hanks and Michael Clarke Duncan's performances really stuck in my head while I was reading the book, and I'm not quite sure which I enjoyed more--the movie or the book.

"The Green Mile" isn't King's usual horror fare (though the "bad death" of Eduard Delacroix will appease those gore-hungry fans), but that could be said about a lot of his more recent "literary" novels. So, readers who are more comfortable with his current books should probably enjoy "The Green Mile" a little more than, say, people who are used to his "Carrie" or "Cujo" books. Still, it's undisputed that King is a master storyteller, which is obvious by this book.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: I'm readin! I'm readin! I'm a hooked tom turkey!
Review: The Green Mile was the first King book I read. It was not the first one I started, but it was the first one i finished. It was by far the best prison story I have ever read or seen. King makes it very clear that Coffey is not just mentally slow, but literally has the mind of a child. It was a total page turner, and the only times I put it down were for church and school. and even then, i snuck a quick page or two. This is a great book, if you can get past the swearing, and i would reccomend the story to any age group. for the munchkins, I suppose you could read it aloud to them and cut any, *cough*, adult parts.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Powerful, just like old sparky...
Review: This is a sad story. The story of Jesus, after a fashion. And the story of sacrafice. I look at the critics of Stephen King and shake my head. Because sometimes our greatest gifts are lost in the narrow minds of what people expect instead of what people are given. A story about textured prison guards trying to deal with the only things they have in a difficult time: family and carreer. And these workmen get introduced to a man who makes them question what they do--they put people to death for a living. And the events that succeed are amazing, inspiring, and devistating. With coincidence and (or) devine intervention they are changed, and I was changed, and felt a sadness infest my life, because the hope that I wished for was hidden in the miricals and treacheries of the events of the story. But that's okay, because the points in between are where I lie, and that makes the magic of seeing the extremes ever more poingant. Just a beautiful book.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: WONDERFUL!
Review: I didn't want to put it down. I read the book before I saw the movie. THough the movie wasn't bad by any standard, the book in my opinion was MUCH better. I was disappointed in the movie b/c the book was so good.
John Coffey is a great character and it's frusterating that WE know his innocence but he's convicted nonetheless. He has healing powers and some of his words had double meaning. I nearly cried reading this book and I was very sad when it was over. It's a riveting read and I'd recomend it to anybody.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Darker, Richer, Grittier Than The Great Movie
Review: Paul Edgecombe is a very old man living in a senior center and writing his memoirs, especially the story of the extraordinary events he witnessed in 1932 as the chief guard on death row in a Georgia prison. In 1932, a prisoner named John Coffey, an enormous and somewhat simple Black man convicted of raping and killing two White girls. But, did he kill them? And, what amazing abilities does he possess? What does a little mouse named Mr. Jingles have to do with it?

For fans of the movie, the book differs in several ways. First, the four "good-guy" guards, Paul, Brutal, Harry, and Dean, share the action more evenly in the book, with Paul being the protagonist or focus about 50% of the time, while the movie has Paul doing 70% of the good-guard action. Second, almost all of the characters, good and bad, are a little bit coarser in the book, especially in their language. The exception is Brutus Howell, called Brutal as a joke; Brutal in the book is a gentle giant with a strong blend of morality, common sense, honesty, and spirituality. Third, the execution scenes are described explicitly in the book, but still do not end up as grisly as they are in the film. Fourth, the end of the book goes beyond the end of the movie, describing the fates of many of the characters. I understand why much of this was deleted from the film, which was already long, but I am surprised that the death of Paul's wife was excluded from the film. Fans of the film will like the book.

For those of you who have not seen the movie, this is a well-written, character-based story with a good blend of strong realism and the supernatural.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Bravo!
Review: A Depression era death row prison guard finds out that things are not always as they seem after a giant of a man is put under his charge having been convicted of murdering two small girls.

No one can find fault with Mr. King's ability to write, but his choice in genres is not always mine. This book (as well as the movie)keeps the reader entranced as they fall in love the characters. A book you hate to finish as you know you will miss the characters for a long long time.

Well well done.


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