Mia (Parentheses Enthusiast)'s Reviews > Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption: A Story from Different Seasons

"Well you weren't writing about yourself, I hear someone in the peanut-gallery saying. You were writing about Andy Dufresne. You're nothing but a minor character in your own story. But you know, that's just not so. It's all about me, every damned word of it. Andy was the part of me they could never lock up, the part of me that will rejoice when the gates finally open for me and I walk out in my cheap suit with my twenty dollars of mad-money in my pocket. That part of me will rejoice no matter how old and broken and scared the rest of me is."

God, I love this story. It really is timeless, and just wonderful. It's a story in the old fashion, with an incredible plot and characters that interact meaningfully and a great setting that binds it all up... There's nothing abstract or unreachable about it, and I think it's one of the most accessible and easy-to-relate-to tales I've ever read. There's just something about Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption that plays into our human desires: the desire for justice, the burning need we have for wrongs to be put right, the way we respect and root for people who deserve better than what they got. It's so appealing on so many levels, and since it's well-written and touching to boot, this story really is perfect.

I've mentioned elsewhere how I love moral greyness and the vast area between black and white, but every now and then I need some good old-fashioned good vs. bad, wrong vs. right. I've loved books with almost no plot to speak of— The Road and Wolf in White Van—but now and again I need a simple yet compelling plot, one that makes sense and has all the trapping of a story. Not a character study, not an exploration of morality, a STORY. Sometimes as a reader I feel like a child who just wants to curl up and listen to their parents read them a bedtime story, and while Red makes it clear that prison is no place for fairytales, this one has that same calming, spellbinding effect.

The film adaptation of this is my favourite movie of all time, as I suspect is the case for many people, and I know you're wondering: Which is better, the movie or the book? Well, I'll have to chalk this one up to one of those rare occasions like The Princess Bride where they're both equally great. I have to give credit to the filmmakers here, because they kept all the good parts intact and left everything more or less unchanged, and what they added enhances the story rather than obscures it. I'm also kind of in awe as to how they captured Red's voice so well; even apart from the voice-over parts (most of which is exact quotes from the novella), the way the plot unfolds is so spot-on when compared to the narrator's straightforward, earnest, yet thoughtful way of storytelling in the novella.

Other than that, there's not too much more I can say, other than I recommend this novella to... well, pretty much everyone. If you have a heart and a pair of eyes and the ability to read, you'll find something to love about this story.

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PRE-REVIEW, 25 AUGUST 2017:

Here I am sitting in a hair salon among the sounds of ladies chattering and blowdryers and pop music, blinking away tears, feeling like the oldest ex-con walking away from Shawshank Prison, getting his first taste of that cold bracing air that whispers freedom.

Hope springs eternal, indeed.



Review to come shortly.