are projected. He has also written one related
short story, “Nightside, Needless to Say” (2004).
Green is always an entertaining and occasionally
quite inventive storyteller who mixes violent ac-
tion with wry humor and whose narrative style is
precise and entertaining.
Green Mansions W. H. Hudson(1904)
William Henry Hudson was a naturalist and author
who spent much of his childhood in Argentina. He
had written a few short fantasies before Green
Mansions,the only one of his works to remain pop-
ular into the 21st century, although his science fic-
tion novel A Crystal Age(1887) is one of the more
interesting utopian novels. Green Mansionsis set in
South America and involves an encounter with a
young woman who apparently lives alone in a re-
gion the natives shun because of their fear of the
mysterious beings thought to reside there. Rima
seems only barely human, ethereal and reserved,
and possibly without a sense of sin. She can also
communicate with the jungle animals and claims
to be planning a return to her own people. Unfor-
tunately, the ignorance of the natives and her own
strange actions result in a confrontation in which
she is killed.
Most of the story unfolds through the interac-
tions of Rima with Abel, a political outcast who
has always lived in cities and who is captivated by
both the strange girl and her unfamiliar environ-
ment. Abel feels superior to the local people and
only begins to gain humility toward the end of the
story. The romantic elements are appealing, but
some readers may be discouraged by the long de-
scriptive passages, as Hudson used his extensive
background in natural history to create a very de-
tailed setting, so intricately described that it almost
functions as a separate character. The novel was
brought to the screen in 1959 with an impressive
cast but failed to capture the mystical atmosphere
of the novel.
The Green Mile Stephen King(1997)
Charles Dickens published most of his novels as
serials, writing them even as earlier installments
were being published, which made it impossible
for him to go back and change earlier sections of
the novel. This problem normally does not exist
in the modern publishing industry because
manuscripts are completed and published as a
unit, but Stephen KINGdecided to emulate Dick-
ens with this novel, originally published as six
slim paperbacks between 1996 and 1997. When
the first installment, “The Two Dead Girls,” ap-
peared, the second half of the novel had yet to be
written. Although the marketing information sug-
gested that King himself did not know how the
story would end, he undoubtedly had a good idea
where the story was going. Given the unorthodox
manner in which it was written, it is particularly
surprising that the novel holds together so well,
is, in fact, more tightly written than several of his
other novels, and is numbered among his best
works.
Most of the story takes place on death row in
a small prison and is related through the eyes of
the officer in charge of that section. One of the in-
mates is a troublemaker, possibly insane, violent,
and vindictive. Another is an unlikely killer, an in-
secure, frightened, and otherwise likable character.
The third is the focus of the story, an enormous
black man who appears to be mildly retarded and
who has been convicted of the brutal murder of
two young children, even though he is innocent.
John Coffey has a secret, though. He has an ex-
traordinary power to draw the illness and pain out
of another human being, absorb it into his own
body, and then expel it harmlessly. He was, in fact,
attempting to help the two murdered girls when he
was caught with them, but they were beyond even
his power.
The head guard, Paul Edgecombe, eventually
accepts the existence of Coffey’s powers and be-
comes equally convinced that the man is innocent.
At the same time, he acknowledges the fact that
there is nothing he can do to alter the situation,
that Coffey is doomed and is even perhaps eager to
die and put all of the pain and misery behind him.
After appearing separately, the six volumes were
combined into one title as The Green Mile(1997),
and the unified story was made into an excellent,
very loyal film under the same title two years later.
The combined edition also won the Bram Stoker
Award for best novel.The Green Mile 145