Shawshank Redemption

 

By- Stephen King 

    I was scrolling through an article for books to read for the Halloween season and there were a bunch written by Stephen King, of course, which gave me the idea to scroll through books he has written. I have only read one, Misery, and was thinking I should read more. While scrolling, on my phone, a list of all his books I saw this book, I am quite familiar with the movie but had no idea it was actually a book. Needless to say I had to read it and see if it is anything like the book, so I found it in my local library and read it, I was not disappointed. 

    The book is very much like the movie, it starts with the narrator Red telling the story of how he got imprisoned, cutting the brakes on his wife's car killing her, her friend and child. The narrator expresses that he is not sure if he is rehabilitated or even understands what that means but he does say that given the choice again he would not repeat the heinous crime. Red goes on to narrate the story of Andy Dufresne, whose wife was cheating on him with the local golf pro. He got drunk one night and stood outside the golf pro's house while his wife was in there with him, from his own story he had no plans to kill them. However the next day they were found murdered and blame was laid at his feet, the hearing did not go his way and honestly there was a lot of evidence against him and none was found that could absolve him of the murder. He was sentenced to life in prison at Shawshank the same prison as Red. He had a rough go at prison life, being attack by other inmates but never gives up always fighting back. While in prison Andy did a lot, you will have to read the book and find out the whole story, the legendary story of the prisoner from Shawshank.

    Like I said this book was written before the well known movie was ever made, and as far as I can tell the movie did a fabulous job keeping in line with the book. Sometimes when a movie is made they cut out sections or mix up important events to make a better movie, from my opinion I did not find any differences. The filmmakers did a really good job, but like usual I prefer the book and it did not disappoint. I highly recommend this book to everyone, it is not the usual Stephen King book, there is not a dark horror story but instead it is a story of hope and redemption.