Books: Over the Wall

THE RIOT by Frank Elli. 255 pages. Coward-McCann. $4.95.

The publishers, who awarded their $15,000 Thomas R. Coward Prize to this first novel, call it “unquestionably the most authentic prison novel ever written.” No questions are likely. The author wrote his book while serving 6½ years of a 10-to 80-year robbery sentence in a Minnesota jail. He was also a captive researcher at the Walla Walla State Prison (4½ years, burglary) and at San Quentin (three years, robbery).

In fact, Frank Elli, now 41, had been in the pen on one rap or another eleven times since he was mustered out of the Navy 20 years ago. Apparently it occurred to him late that crime was not his true calling. Through a correspondence course offered by the University of Minnesota, Elli discovered that he had a greater talent for writing. The resulting novel, a tense, minute-by-minute account of a prison riot, shows that he has a born storyteller’s way with a yarn.

The trouble is that the book, despite the obvious authenticity of its setting, is too reminiscent of all the old-fashioned prison stories that cram late-night TV.

Still, it is a fair start toward a writing career. Elli is now on parole and working on a new book. Meanwhile, Hollywood is offering him $150,000 for the movie rights to The Riot. Obviously, the ex-convict has found that the word is mightier than the pen.