The Green Mile

Title : The Green Mile
Author: Stephen King

Now, though I have an entire book shelf of Stephen King books, which sadly only 4-5 books are good enough for my repeated reading, I'm not exactly his ardent fan. Sometimes I DO wonder why sometimes I keep buying his books but then, once in a while when I manage to get a good book out of him, I'm reminded again of why I buy his books.

One of my favourites is The Green Mile. This novel was first published as a serial novel but I was lucky to find the complete compilation of the series and I really enjoyed it. To be honest, I watched the movie first, before reading the book and though the movie has omitted a lot of the actual story, its still good. I'd recommend watching the movie first before proceeding to the book or you might be disappointed eventhough the movie gets a 4-star rating from me.

The Green Mile refers to this green strip of colour lined at the floor of the prison that leads to the execution area, better known as Old Sparky, the electric chair. The story, narrated by prison guard Paul Edgecombe revolves around a few main characters such as John Coffey (the so-called criminal who's so simple minded, you'd wonder how they even thought of him as the criminal, though his size could contribute to it), Warden Moores (the prison warden), the prison guards namely Dean Stanton, Harry Terwilliger and Brutus Howell aka 'Brutal' (though he's as gentle as a lamb, but has this garang face) and the infamous Percy Wetmore (reminds me of Percy Plod in the 'Happy Family' game card most of us played when younger) who's one of the most irritating guy you'd ever meet, always strutting his stuff (which is not much anyway, he got the job because he had connections and applied for it so he could beat up the prisoners) and pretending to be such a big shot!

Anyway, the story starts with a newcomer in this prison block. The block these guys were stationed at is the final place for the prisoner before he is executed so any newcomer had his fate already sealed. Paul had been used to all sorts of criminals but this new one kept him puzzled. His name was John Coffey ("like the drink, only not spelled the same way" <--this was Coffey's sure-line after introducing himself). Coffey was a giant of a man, and black, and this was a time when discrimination was still on the heat. He seemed to be able to crush everyone with his bare hand but, suprisingly, he was soft spoken and well-mannered in the 'simple Simon' way. The guards were suprised when he told them not to switch of the lights since he was afraid of the dark coz that was a stark contrast to his crime -->raping two sisters and killing them, cold heartedly after poisoning the dog! Somehow, Paul had already started to doubt Coffey was guilty.

Oppss, the story is quite long and I don't want to dwell on the details anyway but as we go on, we are introduced to other inmates of the priosn cell like Dell, a kind'a retarded person who had raped a girl and killed her then burnt her body in hopes to destroy the evidence but somehow, a building was also caught with the fire causing two more deaths. But apart from his ONLY crime, he was just this simple minded guy. Then there's William Wharton aka Wild Bill, I think, who was arrested for I-don't-remember-what BUT, towards the end, you'd know he had a connection with Coffey, and suprisingly, you'd get so mad it was as if you were involved in the story too.. talk about the power of literature! Wild Bill arrived looking like a drug-junkie but you'd laugh out loud at what he did to Percy.. serves him right, anyway!

Then, one unforgetable character will be Mr Jingles who is Dell's pet in prison. He might look like an ordinary mouse but he sure is smart. The story would be punctuated by stories revolving around Mr Jingles, and don't be suprised to see how important the role he plays here. Towards the end.. and here I mean towards the end coz this story is narrated by Paul when he was already in a nursing home.

The story is mainly about what happened during the time Coffey was imprisoned before his execution. You can't help but feel a bit of affection for the gentle giant who always saw the good in people. He was also always trying to be nice to everyone-not in that sickly sweet way, mind you- even volunteered to look after Mr Jingles when it was finally time for Dell to go to Old Sparky which with Percy's 'help' turned into an ugly event. Somehow, King manages to explain the procedur for electric chair execution but Percy, being Percy, wanted to see more of the action and what happened turned out to be so ugly, that Mr Jingles finally ran off after feeling what was happening to Dell, through Coffey's body!

And WOW!! Dell's execution was certainly well described. But you also can't help feeling sorry for him after you've got to know him throughout the book. In the movie, Dell is potrayed by this actor who made such a wonderful job outta it, that when I read about Dell, I keep seeing this guy's face. The same goes to Coffey who was palyed by this guy.. I'm not sure of his name but if i'm not mistaken, he starred in DareDevil the movie as the King Pin or something like that. Sorry, I didn't watch DareDevil but I saw the picture in the papers so I'm sure its the same guy! But Paul was played by no other than Tom Hanks.

Throughout John Coffey's time in prison, Paul had been infected with a urinary infection but somehow, towards the end, he learnt what was special about John Coffey, when Coffey helped him with this problem. This gave them (Paul, Brutus, Harry and Dean) the idea to bring Coffey to Warden Moores home, to help his wife Melinda who was supposed to be dying of cancer. You would laugh at all the measures they took in order to smuggle Coffey out where they had to take care of Wild Bill and Percy, so these two won't notice anything amiss.

Gosh, I wanted to keep this as a secret at first but I guess I have to tell you guys about it. Coffey had this special healing ability where he could 'suck' illness from anyone, and dispose it in form of these dusts he would exhale through his mouth. He did it to Paul so Paul had known what was to happen. However, in doing it to Melinda, Coffey didn't even exhale the dust he was supposed to. This worried Paul but they had to haul Coffey back to prison at that time before anyone realized he was missing, so Paul didn't have time to persuade Coffey to do so.

Arriving at the prison, Percy woke up (he was given sleeping pills by Paul and Brutus) just in time for Coffey to be safely in his cell. Being up to his usually bullying habit, he went up to Coffey for his round of 'torturing' when suddenly Coffey exhaled all those dusts right into Percy's mouth. What followed was something none of the guards would ever forget as Percy slowly recovered but with this distant look on his face. He then went to Wild Bill's cell, and shot the guy clean!

Percy was then institutionalized (am I using the right word here?). He was never the same.

It was after all these that Paul finally had the courage to go up to Coffey and ask him about the crimes, and about what he did to Percy. You'd really pity Coffey at this part when finally the truth comes out. As much as Paul wanted to help Coffey, the sole evidence to Coffey's innocence was already dead but then again even Coffey didn't want to live anymore. He was so sensitive to the pain of others that his execution was a welcome break for him.

I really love this book, one of the King's greatest compositions. Quite heavy though, not intended for light reading but I'm sure you guy's would've enjoyed it too!