Bingo!

Aluin Gilchrist is a Vancouver-based Canadian government civil
litigation lawyer.

In brief, Caron’s tale starts like this: Being on parole I couldn’t travel beyond a radius of 25 miles from Cornwall without written permission. Lorne, a four-time loser, said he had lined me up a job bricklaying on a skyscraper in Toronto. He drove me to the business district. Then he told me: “Jesus, Roger, all you got to do is go in there with a gun and take it all away from them.” Enraged, I let fly with a right hook to Lorne’s head. Later, “Your face is covered with blood!” I groaned, realizing that a cop would also spot it. In Lorne’s car were a .38, a luger, and two balaclavas.

Caron spent almost two years in prison on that charge, and was in on the Kingston penitentiary riot of April 1971. Released, he returned to robbing banks. Imprisoned again, he spent fifteen years writing Go-Boy! That earned much acclaim. Released, he spent seven of ten years on parole doing this book about the riot. He writes forcefully: “The Yankee... drank from the chalice until blood ran freely down the sides of his mouth.” “That... was dead there could be no doubt. His head sagged backward in the chain, his eyes gaping. Grey matter oozed from a hole in his forehead.”

Prisons are like a festering sore in the body politic. What a guilty pleasure it is to peer at them! Most people will read this book because it is well-written, blood-curdling, exciting, real-life, true documentary stuff.