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Summary and Reviews of The Green Mile by Stephen King

The Green Mile by Stephen King

The Green Mile

The Complete Serial Novel

by Stephen King
  • Critics' Consensus (4):
  • Readers' Rating (16):
  • Paperback:
  • Nov 1999, 344 pages
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About This Book

Book Summary

Read this history-making serial novel -- from cliffhanger to cliffhanger -- in its entirety.

Read this history-making serial novel -- from cliffhanger to cliffhanger -- in its entirety.

When it first appeared, one volume per month, Stephen King's The Green Mile was an unprecedented publishing triumph: all six volumes ended up on the New York Times bestseller list -- simultaneously -- and delighted millions of fans the world over.

Welcome to Cold Mountain Penitentiary, home to the Depression-worn men of E Block. Convicted killers all, each awaits his turn to walk the Green Mile, keeping a date with "Old Sparky," Cold Mountain's electric chair. Prison guard Paul Edgecombe has seen his share of oddities in his years working the Mile. But he's never seen anyone like John Coffey, a man with the body of a giant and the mind of a child, condemned for a crime terrifying in its violence and shocking in its depravity. In this place of ultimate retribution, Edgecombe is about to discover the terrible, wondrous truth about Coffey, a truth that will challenge his most cherished beliefs...and yours.

Excerpt
The Green Mile

This happened in 1932, when the state penitentiary was still at Cold Mountain. And the electric chair was there, too, of course.

The inmates made jokes about the chair the way people always make jokes about things that frighten them but can't be gotten away from. They called it Old Sparky, or the Big Juicy. They made cracks about the Power bill, and how Warden Moores would cook his Thanksgiving dinner that fall, with his wife, Melinda, too sick to cook.

But for the ones who actually had to sit down in that chair, the humor went out of the situation in a hurry I presided over seventy-eight executions during my time at Cold Mountain (that's one figure I've never been confused about; I'll remember it on my deathbed), and I think that, for most of those men, the truth of what was happening to them finally hit all the way home when their ankles were being damped to ...

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Reviews

Media Reviews

Boston Globe
King surpasses our expectations, leaves us spellbound and hungry for the next twist of plot.

Entertainment Weekly
[The Green Mile] has everybody talking....[King's] best fiction in years....A prison novel that's as haunting and touching as it is just plain haunted.

The New York Times
Mr. King now dominates like Carrie at the prom.

USA Today
One of King's most immediately engaging page-turners.

Reader Reviews

Jaya

Captivating
Nothing screams injustice LOUDER than The Green Mile. The way a naturally vulnerable man suffers in the hands of a biased and prejudiced law system is aggravating, but explains perfectly the mindset of those in the deep south during the 1930s. ...   Read More
kaydawg

The green mile rocked my sox
A TEAR JERKER.... this book was great... the movie is also a great follow with the book. (if your not big on reading they are almost exact!) this shows conflicts that may acctualy happen in prison.
Josh

Very emotional book. Don't just watch the movie you have to read it. I loved it. It's my favorite book.
Michael

best book ever. Truly.

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Read-Alikes

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