Between the Pages

E Block, Cold Mountain State Penitentiary, in 1932, is the setting for this stunning book.  The green mile of the title refers to the floor of the block, and the green mile is the last walk that the prisoners of E block will ever take – for this block is for those prisoners who have been sentenced to execution in the electric chair.

Narrated by warden Paul Edgecombe, decades after the main events of the book took place, this tells the story of a very unusual prisoner who came to the prison, namely John Coffey, a huge black man who has been sentenced to die for rape and murder of two young sisters.  John is like no other prisoner that the wardens have ever seen, either physically or in any other way.  As he spends time on the ward, the truth behind his story unfolds.  John seems to have certain powers  to enable him to save others who are in danger – but will it be enough to save himself?

I must preface thsi review by saying that I probably won’t be able to do this book justice here.  It really is a fabulous book, and I am anxious not to give away any spoilers, but I’ll say right at the outset that I loved it.

This story is something of a departure for Stephen King – the supernatural elements for which he is well known are all here, but this is not a horror story.  It is in fact an incredibly moving story, which was genuinely hard to put down.  The events are narrated at time far removed from when they actually happened (Edgecombe is, by the time of the telling of the story, an old man living in a retirement home), when racism was rife and the electric chair was seen as a fitting punishment for heinous crimes (by some – and maybe some would still see it as a fitting punishment, but it made me shudder).

The book was originally published as a six part serial, which explains some of the repititon at the beginning of each segment (the last part of the previous segment was repeated, obviously to remind the reader what had happened previously).  Obviously such repetition is redundant when reading the book in one go, but I think it actually helped the story along rather than detracted from it at all.  The writing is incredibly emotional in parts (I cried a few times, which is rare for me when reading a book), and although it is not a thriller as such, I still sometimes found myself holding my breath in anticipation of what was to follow.  The writing flows so well, and the main characters are all very well drawn (I especially liked Brutus Howell, Paul Edgecombe’s friend and colleague).

Overall it is a story that shows the very best and the very worst of humanity, it is a story of great power, and it is a story which I highly recommend to anybody.

(Author’s website can be found here.)

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Click here for my review of the 1999 film adaptation.

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