UNDERDOG, A True Crime Thriller of Prison Life (Prison Killers- Book 4) [Kindle Edition]

Glenn Langohr's latest novella, Underdog For Sista Soul, once again takes the reader inside the lives and minds of prisoners. Visceral violence mixes together with insightful introspection as convicts battle each other, guards, and despair. Langohr has been to the hole, and has been to the brink. He freely admits that both trips were of his own making. His familiarity with the violence and despair is captured eloquently in lines like: "scenes flashed by of men dressed in prison garb being pulled by the unseen force of willpower, punching, grunting, kicking, yelling, and stabbing at each other to their own destruction". Beautiful sentences like this float amidst the challenging modern art prose.

This book does not glamorize prison life but rather accurately reports on the cruel reality, which may shock and frighten many readers. The author skillfully makes the point that the general public has more awareness for and more compassion for caged dogs than for prisoners. He also reaches through the bars and describes how the guards are organized into gangs and other criminal enterprises.

Having previously read Roll Call, Upon My release, I was already familiar with Mr. Langohr's work. In Underdog, we see that he has continued to work on his craft without sacrificing any of the rawness or edginess in his writing. I sincerely hope he sticks with his writing, and that he keeps developing his themes. There is a story to be told about the prisons in this country, and Mr. Langohr can tell it. If you're going to read this short work, which I highly recommend, be prepared to do some soul searching...

JT Kalnay
Attorney

Pow! Bam! Splatter!
It's B.J. fighting for his life again in the wretched California prison system.
In his latest novel, "Underdog," Glenn Langohr takes B.J. back into the dreaded Supermax at Pelican Bay, California's toughest prison. At first he's just fighting to survive, hopelessly outnumbered by Mexican and black gang members, but then he goes back to try and help his friend, still inside, ferociously battling to change the penal system.
And ex-con Langohr can describe the hell of life inside better than any other writer. His vivid passages on just surviving in prison describe a nightmare we'd rather not know about.
He compares the plight of abandoned dogs, locked and horribly mistreated in rows of cages in animal shelters, to California prison inmates, locked and abused in the same cages.
B.J. tells how his friend, Damon, 6ft.3ins., is beaten down inside Pelican Bay from a fearsome tattooed enforcer into a shambling, hunched over, old man, his recently-beaten face swollen and battered, shuffling around in leg irons.
Prison guards who broke the Code of Silence and tried to help inmates, were labeled as snitches and even found their own lives in danger.
Not a book for the faint of heart. We who sleep peacefully in our beds at night, unaware of the savagery going on behind prison walls, can only thankfully say: "There, but for the grace of God, go I."

I just finished reading "UNDERDOG (A Roll Call True Prison Story)." I cannot believe how human beings were being treated in this prison. In the beginning of the book, the author and his wife were considering getting a couple of dogs, so they went to an animal shelter. They found the conditions there to be totally horrendous, somewhat like the conditions had been in the prison that the author had recently been released from. They wanted to adopt all the dogs, but settled for two; however, they were instrumental in getting volunteers to help in the shelter.

Back to our story about a prison in California... This huge prison was built in a small town. Because of the jobs the prison provided, this formerly poor town began to prosper. The prisoners were treated inhumanely by the prison guards; as a result, many prisoners rebelled and were put in a different area of the prison. In effect, prisoners were staying in prison longer than their original sentences; how's that for job security (for the guards)? The attempts to improve the prison were not as successful as how the animal shelter had been improved. The prisoners went on a hunger strike, but that didn't seem to help. The author had sent mail to people in the prison; much of the mail never got to the intended recipients.

This book was gifted to me, but knowing what I know now, it's well worth 99 cents (even $2.99). This book might make you angry, like it did me, but as a result, I am a better-informed person on this subject.