I decided to delve into a horror/suspense novel for the first time in a while. And also into a Stephen King story for the first time in a few years too. Neither are at the top of my list. Horror because I tend to be squeamish and don’t like to be frightened. Stephen King because he writes a lot of horror and also because I think some of his work is unnecessarily long. But The Stand The Green Mile is not. Particularly since I am reading this the way it was originally presented, one small piece at a time.
The Two Dead Girls doesn’t do much more than set the stage for later episodes in the serial (which I haven’t yet read). Our narrator is Paul Edgecombe, the lead guard for E Block in Cold Mountain, a penitentiary in the south in 1932. Edgecombe doesn’t seem brainy, but he does seem to be a bit more educated, calm, and wise than your average prison guard in the south. More like a southern gentleman stuck below his station than a redneck above his. E Block serves as death row for the state.
Other characters in this installment are Percy Wetmore (a politically connected guard under Edgecombe), Eduard Delacroix (a prisoner soon to be executed), and Hal Moores (the warden). John Coffey is the the reason for the book. He’s a new inmate, sentenced to die for killing two white girls. He doesn’t seem too bright. Incidentally, Michael Clarke Duncan seems tailor-made for the role. I wonder if King wrote the description with him in mind. The rest feel like filler, but I’ll find out later for sure.
In addition to setting up the setting and the characters, Edgecombe researches the murder and tells us how John Coffey came to be sentenced to death. It’s a pretty gruesome description, though it comes from an emotional distance.
One line in the book I really liked: There is a skull in every man, and I tell you there is a skull in the lives of all men.
I also liked little part where Moores and Edgecombe talk in the warden’s office. King writes He was seeing me to the outer office by then […]
at the end of the conversation. Just adding in a little detail that makes it seem real without being gratuitous description.
Anyhow, I don’t feel as if I should write more for a single installment, so that’s it for now.
Title: The green mile: part one: the two dead girls
Author: Stephen King
Series: The green mile; 1
Imprint / publisher: Signet / Penguin
Format: Mass market paperback
Length: 92 p.
Publication date: March 1996
ISBN-10: 0-451-19049-1
LC classification: PS3561.I483 T93 1996
