Although Stephen King is broadly considered
to be the “Master of Horror,” an often unrecognized truth about the man’s
career is that he is simply a great writer, regardless of genre. In fact, many of his best works don’t fit
into the horror domain at all. One such
example graces our list at #4, The Green Mile [1996]—a book that King
originally published as six separate paperback volumes to pay homage to the
serials he’d enjoyed as a boy.
This powerful tale is narrated by Paul
Edgecombe, even though the story really isn’t about Edgecombe at all. Edgecombe tale vacillates between
then-present day 1996, where he is an old man, and events that happened back in
1932, when he was the prison block supervisor for the penitentiary’s death row—nicknamed
“The Green Mile” because of the color of the floor linoleum.
Presiding over several dangerous inmates
awaiting execution, Edgecombe’s life changes forever when the physically powerful but feeble minded John
Coffey—an innocent black man convicted of raping and murdering two young white
children—is sentenced to death. During
the savant’s stay on death row, Edgecombe quickly discovers that there is more
to Coffey than meets the eye, as the empathic Coffey has the ability to heal
and read minds.
Compelling and gripping in print, The
Green Mile was adapted for the big screen in 1999, and remains one of the
best movies I’ve ever seen.
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