The Green Mile

I read this when I was a teenager, and I don't remember enjoying it very much. It's probably one of those that needs a re-read, since I'm seeing glowing reviews everywhere. ( )

A long time ago, I watched about half of the film, The Green Mile. I think my mum has the DVD, I'll have to get it out when I'm home at Easter, because I've read that the movie was pretty faithful to the book, and I want to see that. I actually read the book, all of it, today, putting it down now and again to eat, wash my hair and do some school work. Very reluctantly, I'll have you know.

I didn't actually cry at it, but I came pretty close. Ouch. Particularly this part, for me:

"He kill them with they love," John said. "They love for each other. You see how it was?"
I nodded, incapable of speech.
He smiled. The tears were flowing again, but he smiled. "That's how it is every day," he said, "all over the worl'." Then he lay down and turned his face to the wall.

The Green Mile is really quick to read, but I wouldn't call it easy. The characters are well-written. In fact, Percy, who is one of the most awful characters, is one of the best, because you can imagine him, right down to not wetting the sponge. You've probably known someone a bit like him, a bully, someone who never understands why people think he did something wrong. The other characters were pretty well-written, but Percy was probably the most memorable for me (just like you probably remember the bully from school, but you don't remember the quiet girl who sat in the corner and followed the rules).

Definitely worth reading. It's not horror, by a long shot, and I don't know why people dismiss Stephen King as "just a horror writer", or "not a writer", when he writes stuff like this. ( )

My first Stephen King novel, unless you count my reading "The Dead Zone" some 25 years ago or more. King certainly keeps things moving, but what surprised me was finding he is a moral writer in the sense that Tolstoy and John Gardner use the word. I am going to read more King stories. ( )

Good, but not great. Has it's share of occasional lulls, but generally absorbing. King once again comes up with an astounding character creation. Was more effective as a serial than a novel. ( )

Good, but not great. Has it's share of occasional lulls, but generally absorbing. King once again comes up with an astounding character creation. Was more effective as a serial than a novel. ( )