Jojo

by Roger Caron

180 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1988

About the author

Excerpts from Wikipedia: Roger Caron:

Roger "Mad Dog" Caron (April 12, 1938 – April 11, 2012) was a Canadian robber and the author of the influential prison memoir Go-Boy! Memories of a Life Behind Bars (1978). At the time of publishing, Caron was 39 years old and had spent 23 years in prison.

Bibliography:
1978 Go-Boy! Memories of a Life Behind Bars, Hushion House, 292 pages, ISBN 0-9682522-3-0
1985 Bingo! The Horrifying Eyewitness Account of a Prison Riot, Methuen, 216 pages, ISBN 0-458-99700-5
1988 Jojo, Stoddart Publishing, 180 pages, ISBN 0-7737-2208-4
1992 Dreamcaper, Stoddart Publishing, 215 pages, ISBN 0-7737-5486-5

Reviews

[Anna Dowdall · Rating 4 out of 5]

PILGRIM'S PROGRESS: Jojo is a hard book to love because it doesn't seem to fit into a category or genre. It reads somewhat like an old-fashioned romantic fable about a hero of low degree who must overcome difficulties and find meaning in an alien world. But the style flips intermittently to something like a newspaper account. And then there are hints of popular romance novel and melodrama as well. It's a novel about Jojo, a young Sioux boy who loses practically everyone he loves, has traumatic experiences in and out of jail in Canada and the US, and ends up in Ottawa filled with hatred and with a dream of assassinating the prime minister. The ending is brusque and sudden, almost like a deliberate narrative collapse, a disruption.
There is great vigour in the writing, and, while I say it's a hard book to love, at the same time it's very hard to put down. But I can see how critics wouldn't know what to make of this, after the powerful memoirs Caron wrote, Go-Boy and Bingo. Roger Caron spent most of his life behind bars and was in some ways a tragic figure. This is one of only four books he wrote.
It may be, as some critics have said, that Caron was trying to go somewhere with this book and didn't pull it off. Or perhaps he did, but since it isn't the usual novel as we've come to know it, we don't know quite what to make of it. Oddly, its awkwardnesses remind me of much earlier novels. The one that comes to mind in particular is Caleb Williams, written by the anarchist William Godwin a long time ago -- in 1794.

[Ivana Hrushowy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting novel. I rather enjoyed it. At times I wish the narrator was able to tell us more about what JoJo was thinking and feeling-I think this was likely a stylistic choice to keep him vague at times, in line with how he might have been if he were a real person. The pacing at times felt hasty, however, it’s a good story, and love the writing style.