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A review by olafindisguise
The Green Mile by Stephen King
3.0
Unlike most of King's other works I've read so far, I found myself unable to put this one down. The overly-descriptive, almost-Dickensian writing style and spending chapters describing a random background character really worked for me.
The book tries to tackle serious and tricky topics like racism, white privilege, and the death penalty, among others, and somewhat succeeds to get its point across in a few instances. The road to hell, however, is certainly paved with good intentions.
John Coffey is essentially an Uncle Tom with healing powers, aka "useful" black person who only exists to help the white heroes with their tragic health problems, and, of course, to serve the plot as a McGuffin. In a way, it's ironic, because his character was created by the same author who beautifully acknowledges white guilt in the following excerpt:
So I feel very conflicted about the whole thing.
The book tries to tackle serious and tricky topics like racism, white privilege, and the death penalty, among others, and somewhat succeeds to get its point across in a few instances. The road to hell, however, is certainly paved with good intentions.
John Coffey is essentially an Uncle Tom with healing powers, aka "useful" black person who only exists to help the white heroes with their tragic health problems, and, of course, to serve the plot as a McGuffin. In a way, it's ironic, because his character was created by the same author who beautifully acknowledges white guilt in the following excerpt:
Spoiler
[...]Hal nodding the whole time and looking sort of exalted. He could afford to nod, couldn’t he? Yes. And look exalted, too. There was a deep sadness on his face—he was shaken, all right; I never doubted it—but there were no tears this time, because he had a wife to go home to, his companion to go home to, and she was fine. Thanks to John Coffey, she was well and fine and the man who had signed John’s death warrant could leave and go to her. He didn’t have to watch what came next. He would be able to sleep that night in his wife’s warmth while John Coffey lay on a slab in the basement of County Hospital, growing cool as the friendless, speechless hours moved toward dawn. And I hated Hal for those things. Just a little, and I’d get over it, but it was hate, all right. The genuine article.So I feel very conflicted about the whole thing.