Go-Boy! details Caron's life growing up in reformatories, prisons, and mental institutions from the age of sixteen through his thirties. Originally sent to the Ontario Reformatory in Guelph as a teenager for breaking and entering, his "career" in prison grew exponentially after constant bad judgements and a personal inner rage that Caron seemed unable to stifle.
As a teen still in Guelph, Caron was fortunate enough to earn a transfer to the medium security reformatory in Brampton, Ontario. His luck didn't last as he had the misfortune of crossing a bigger inmate which culminated in him smashing said inmate in the neck with a hockey stick during a recreation period. Thinking the inmate was deceased (he was actually only unconscious), Caron hid the body under a boxing ring out of sight of the guards. Knowing he would face serious jail time, possibly hanging, for murdering someone rather than the original fourteen months he was scheduled to be incarcerated, Caron made the decision to escape as soon as possible.
While they were being marched from the recreation centre, Caron and a handful of inmates made a break for the woods at the fringes of the Brampton reformatory amid cries of "Go-Boy!" from fellow convicts. Go-Boy is a prison yell used when an inmate (or inmates) break from a work detail or crew in an attempt to escape. Caron successfully eluded the stalking prison guards and fled, not fully aware of how bleak his life would become over the following decades. He was recaptured three days later and sent back to the Ontario Reformatory in Guelph, this time as a member of the general population (gen pop).
Caron successfully broke out of thirteen prisons and jails, more than any other criminal in Canadian history, exploits he covers in vivid detail throughout the book. Go-Boy! was awarded the 1978 Governor General's Award for non-fiction and was widely acknowledged for its insights into prison life. It sold more than 600,000 copies.
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