The AMSA Book Club has read several Stephen King books, and in February the book chosen was The Green Mile. I will preface by stating that I gave this 1996 novel and Bram Stoker Award winner five stars out of five and found it to be an incredible read.
Why? Many reasons, actually, but the main elements that led me to love this book are its intriguing plot and dynamic characters. Mr. King’s writing is full of hidden messages and lines that are so beautiful they stick with you and leave you thinking for a long time.
The plot is vast and includes a prison break, some magical elements (including a magical mouse), and several executions. I was entranced the whole time, and as more secrets were revealed I just wanted to keep reading.
The narrative follows the main character, Paul Edgecombe, in the style of a memoir. Paul writes about his life in retrospect from a retirement home. He reminisces about his time working at Cold Mountain Penitentiary, where he was in charge of death row, and prisoners were executed via electric chair, a device characters call “Old Sparky.”
Other key characters include Paul’s friends and a sadistic colleague, Percy, who is unnecessarily cruel to the prisoners. The main prisoners are John Coffey and Eduard Delacroix. The prison setting and the nuances of the justice system allow Mr. King to explore such topics as capital punishment, race, and death itself. He also explores friendship in some ways you would not expect.
Paul comes to suspect that Coffey, a 6-foot-8 black man who is shy and empathetic and who seems to have special abilities, is innocent of the crimes for which he has been sentenced to death.
To avoid spoilers I will not share the ending, but I will mention that this book left me in tears. Mr. King successfully humanizes his characters, some of whom are said to have done horrible things, in a way that makes you feel empathy for them despite their actions.
Having now read several novels from Mr. King, both for the book club and on my own, I can say that every book ends up making me feel a variety of emotions. The beginning of this novel had me thinking I was not going to like it, but once it gathered steam I found it impossible to put down.
The novel has many connections to other pieces of literature and history that fall into the AMSA curriculum, which makes reading it even more enriching. My favorite connection was to John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men, which is part of the 11th grade English curriculum.
Mr. King uses symbolism throughout, and the title itself represents the path that everyone takes to death. In the penitentiary the last steps the prisoners walk are along a green path that leads to “Old Sparky.”
It will linger in memory for some time, and I’ll end here with the heartbreaking final line: “We each owe a death, there are no exceptions, I know that, but sometimes, oh God, the Green Mile is so long.”
