The Green Mile
by Stephen King
LTF Stock #: 000734
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A first-person narrative told by Paul Edgecombe, the novel switches between Paul as an old man in the Georgia Pines nursing home, writing his story in which he will share the completed draft with fellow resident Elaine Connelly in 1996, and his time in 1932 as the supervisor of the death row block of Cold Mountain State Penitentiary, nicknamed "the Green Mile" for the color of the floor's linoleum.  1932 marks the arrival of John Coffey, a 6'8" stalwart black man who has been convicted of raping and murdering two small white girls.  During his time on the Mile, John interacts with fellow prisoners Eduard "Del" Delacroix, a Cajun arsonist, rapist, and murderer, and William Wharton ("Billy the Kid" to himself, "Wild Bill" to the guards), a wild-acting and dangerous multiple murderer who is determined to make as much trouble as he can before he is executed.  Other inhabitants include Arlen Bitterbuck, a Native American convicted of killing a man in a fight over a pair of boots; Arthur Flanders, a real estate executive who killed his father to perpetrate insurance fraud, whose sentence is eventually commuted to life imprisonment; and Mr. Jingles, a mouse, whom Delacroix teaches various tricks.
Paul and the other guards—Brutus Howell, Dean Stanton, and Harry Terwilliger—are antagonized  by Percy Wetmore, a sadistic guard who enjoys irritating the prisoners.  Despite their dislike of him, the other guards remain civil because he is a nephew to the Governor's wife.  When Percy is offered a position at the nearby Briar Ridge psychiatric hospital, Paul thinks they are finally rid of him.  However, Percy refuses to leave until he is allowed to supervise an execution, so Paul hesitantly allows him to run Del's. Percy deliberately avoids soaking a sponge in brine that is supposed to be tucked inside the electrode cap to ensure a quick death in the electric chair.  When the switch is thrown, the current causes Del to catch fire in the chair and suffer a prolonged, agonizing demise.
Over time, Paul realizes that John Coffey possesses inexplicable healing abilities, which he uses to cure Paul's urinary tract infection and revive Mr. Jingles after Percy stamps on him.   Simple-minded and shy, John is very empathic and sensitive to the thoughts and feelings of others. One night, the guards drug Wharton and lock Percy in the padded restraint room him, so that they can smuggle John out of the prison and take him to the home of Warden Hal Moores.  Hal's wife Melinda has a deadly brain tumor, which John cures. When they return to the Mile, John passes the "disease" from Melinda into Percy, causing him to go mad and shoot a sleeping Wharton to death before falling into a catatonic state from which he never recovers.
Paul's long-simmering suspicions that John Coffey is innocent are confirmed when he discovers that it was actually William Wharton who raped and killed the Detterick sisters and that John was trying to revive them.  Later, John tells Paul that when Wharton grabbed his arm one time, he saw how Wharton had coerced the sisters to be silent using their love for each other.  Paul is unsure how to help John, but John tells him not to worry, as he is ready to die anyway, wanting to escape the cruelty of the world.  John's execution is the last one in which Paul participates.  He introduces Mr. Jingles to Elaine just before the mouse dies, having lived 64 years past these events, and explains that those healed by John gained an unnaturally long lifespan.  Elaine dies shortly after, never learning how Paul's wife in 1956 in a bus accident just outside Birmingham, Alabama.  As Jan lay dying in Paul's arms amidst the pouring rain, he saw John Coffey's ghost watching him from an overpass.  Paul, now 104 years old and alone, wonders how much longer he will live.
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