The Green Mile Novel Series: Review

Warning: Spoilers in this post. If you have not seen the film and don't want to know what happens, or you want to read the book and do not want to know what happens.. don't read this post.

As we all know, Stephen King is an incredible author. He has written a whole variety of books, that have been made in to fantastic (or not-so fantastic in some cases) films. But one of the more well-known amazing films of his, is The Green Mile.

A friend of mine has read pretty much all of Stephen King's books. One day we were having a discussion about books being made into films and you know, the whole if you love a book and see the film then the film can ruin it scenario. My friend then mentioned that the problem with some of Stephen King's famous books was that a film gets released, there's a lot of hype but then the film in no way compares to what you expected, but she then said to me "One film that did live up to the book in my opinion, was The Green Mile!"

I vaguely remembered The Green Mile, I had seen it once many many years ago in my late teen years, the film about Tom Hanks working on death row and this huge guy being convicted of the rape and murder of two young girls, it was one of those films I had enjoyed, but only seen once, and all I remembered was he was innocent, the guy had flies come out of his mouth, and an evil prison guard made one of the criminals have a horrible death when he didn't wet the sponge on the electric chair.

So I decided, as someone who loves reading books (the fact that I still have a whole shelf full of books to read is not relevant here) I decided to find the Green Mile book.

I then discovered, the books were originally as a first edition, released as a mini series of 6 books. Realizing that this would be much easier to carry around in shorter versions, I decided to use these. The 6 books are titled as following:

Book One: The Two Dead Girls

Book Two: The Mouse On The Mile

Book Three: Coffeys Hands

Book Four: The Bad Death Of Eduard Delacroix

Book Five: Night Journey

Book Six: Coffey On The Mile

These books for starters, before I go into the content and comparison to the film (I rewatched the film after finishing the last book to compare) are so good, they're much more convenient as well if you want to have something light to carry and read on your journey to work, also I don't know if it's a psychological thing or not, but the books being short small volumes made me read it a lot quicker. I don't know if in my head it just seemed more doable to complete small books rather than one big novel?

Anyway, back to what this blog is actually about. The books. I have to say, the books are so well written, to the extent that this book series is the second book in my life that I've read that has physically made me cry at the end. So kudos to King on that one.

Obviously, because the books are a mini series, the only downside is that the start of each book is like a refresher of the end of the last book, which if you're reading book after book in one go (I believe the books were originally released over a time frame so it's understandable why they were written that way) it may seem slightly repetitive. But I get why he did that. I imagine the later release of The Green Mile as one whole book probably cuts those parts out.

The book vs film comparison

the film does actually stick to the book in quite a lot of ways. However there are a few parts that differ:

Brad Dolan - Brad Dolan is a bad guy who does not feature in the film at all, but is frequently appearing in the books, he is a nasty staff member of the old people's care home where Paul Edgecombe is living his final (never ending) living years. He is suspicious of Paul's character and constantly pesters him and bullies him. It makes the books very interesting to read and you do encounter a massive anger on Paul's behalf. In the film, one of the workers at the beginning asks Paul where he goes on his walks and that's all you really see of the workers. In the book, Paul is bullied and followed by Brad when he visits the shed. It is understandable however, why the film did not have much time to put his character in.

The film is still satisfying without Brad's bullying being a part of it.

The revelation of the girls killer - The revelation is discovered slightly differently in the book, there's more of Paul going and investigating when he realizes Coffey is innocent and them finding out the truth about 'Billy' being the killer, it didn't come straight to Paul in a vision. But again, it works out better in the film to cut endless investigation detail out and keep it to a vision.

The deaths of everyone around Paul - In the film, Coffey is executed and you cry your heart out, and you know that they all quit their jobs and then Paul goes on in his older days taking his friend to the shed he's been hiding Mr Jingles. And we go on to learn the curse Paul has where he keeps on living, as does Mr Jingles. In the books, Brad Dolan follows them and confronts them, Mr Jingles dies while Brad is there, Paul Edgecombe also goes on to detail to you how everyone died.

Sadly, he explains that Dean is stabbed in the neck at a new prison shortly after transferring. Brutal has a heart attack I believe from memory approx 25 years later.

The saddest of all however, is his wife. There is a part in the final book where there is a whole scene where a tragic crash occurs killing many, except Paul, who escapes with barely a scratch on him. His wife, however, dies tragically. in the scene, Paul sees John Coffey standing nearby and screams and shouts to him pleading for his wife. But Coffey disappears. It is then that Paul realizes why he has barely a scratch on him and he has survived.

That, is one of my favourite moments in the book, as the book is told from Paul's point of view you really do feel every fibre of his heartbreak and you're touched so much by how horrible it is what he's experiencing.

The book ends in the same way as the film did too, which I'm grateful for (I will never get over how The Time Traveler's Wife had a totally different ending to the book and was an absolute disgrace to the book itself) with Paul still living out his days in his early 100s, knowing that although he is not immortal, and he will die eventually; he has been patiently waiting for so long now for his time to come.

The film is one of the most moving things you will ever watch in your life, and although they do say 'Never read a book after watching a film' I would strongly recommend everyone take the time to read this, there are a fair few differences/additions from the film and it really is a beautiful piece of literature.

I would go as far as to say it is one of King's finest pieces.