Customer Reviews

Night Dogs

5 star:		(30)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Although you can find NIGHT DOGS in the suspense/thriller section at your neighborhood bookstore, Kent Anderson's story of the stark reality of a Portland cop's beat in the aftermath of the Vietnam War is much more than your everyday thriller. Officer Hanson is a character you will not soon forget. A Vietnam veteran haunted by his military experience, Hanson finds purpose in his job as a cop in the North Precinct, a proud but poor Portland neighborhood, where the police are more often at odds with the residents than protecting them.

But this is not your typical cop-story or your run of the mill thriller. The language is brutal, the characters peculiar, the overall tone is murky, dark. This book is not for the timid. Hanson's motivations are disturbing, and the whole story has an abrasiveness to it that is not often found in suspense novels, where that final confrontation between good and evil is what keeps you turning the pages. The reader of NIGHT DOGS is not necessarily motivated by that imminent conflict with the antagonist, but the nagging wonder of whether or not Hanson will ultimately destroy himself. The showdown between good and evil is nullified because the line between the two has been erased and they have melded into one gruesome blur.

As an exclusive reader of thriller novels, this is the first that I have felt strongly enough about to write a review. The characters, not just Hanson but his supporting cast as well, will likely stick in your memory for some time. I have read a half dozen novels since finishing NIGHT DOGS, but Anderson's images remain as strong as ever. This is an important book. I recommend it highly to readers of all genres.

I worked with Kent Anderson in North Precinct in 1975. Although the book is fiction, many of the stories have a ring of truth and the gut feelings he describes so well are real. He humanizes the police and the people on the street, far from a "Just the facts, Ma'm" kind of novel. Cops can cry, cops can be afraid and Anderson shows what it was like. Our police union newspaper editor gave it a bad review, saying it was too racist. But then again, but he never worked anything other than middle class white neighborhoods. I guess you had to be there. Read the book and you will be.

Night Dogs caught me totally by surprise. I bought the book not knowing what to expect, and after I read the first 3 pages I knew I had found something unique. The book is not a dramatic account of the search for a serial killer or a drug lord, but instead gives an episodic glimpse into the life of a young cop who is still trying to make sense of his experiences in Vietnam as a Green Beret. The most influential people in my life have been vietnam vets, and the Hanson character has helped me understand what the young men of that generation who served went through. Anyone interested in police work or the Vietnam war should read this book and then read Sympathy For The Devil to better understand where the sometimes cruel Officer Hanson character is coming from. This is a fantastic book, I hope Mr. Anderson is getting the recognition he deserves.

I first wrote a review of this novel over six years ago when I was a brand new police officer. I had problems with the book. But back then what did I know about police work? Nothing.

Skip ahead to the present and I find that this book is more truthful than I realized. Though he was only a cop for a few years Anderson manages to capture the essence or truth (that's an overused word)of police work.

Now I haven't been involved with any questionable shootings and I don't carry a throw-away piece, but the changes that a person goes through after a few years are accurate. The anger, the sense of isolation and disgust that one comes to feel towards the citizenry are dead on.

A cop gets to wade chest deep int the ugliest areas of our society. A cop isn't loved like a firefighter. It's inevitable and we all tell ourselves that we don't care, but there are times that it sets our teeth on edge. Almost nobody really likes or isn't bothered by hatred or disdain. the anger that comes from this situation is made even greater when people who are so vocal in their criticism of cops are the first to dial 911 when something bad is going on. Hypocriscy at it's finest.This and other situations will affect a cop and how he approaches things.This book shows that and more.

The novel is set in the early seventies but nothing has changed. Its a grim job and Anderson captures it. It's also a job that I won't ever quit even during the worse of days Anderson dosen't see it that way, but nevertheless it's an accurate book. Read it and you'll have a better idea of what cops experience and feel.

Night Dogs takes you into the 70's where a lot of police where corrupt into the world of Hanson a vietnam war veteran whose thoughts are dark, disturbing, and ever more real. Night Dogs takes a brutal look into the sacrifices police officers make and more about the inner demons that they face. This is by far the darkest police novel I've ever read. It's also the most truthful and honest police novel I've ever read. I'm a big fan of Pelecanos, who praised this book highly and was the reason why I picked up this book in the first place.

Great characters, gritty action, and the low life of the streets. Hanson, an ex-special forces Vietnam veteran is a cop on the streets in Portland Oregon in the mid 70s. He has an attitude problem, especially with his superiors, and has to deal with enemies within and without the PD. But Hanson also has a sense of justice and he is not really a bad guy. Go along for the ride.

This continuation of Sympathy for the devil is a stand-alone novel that packs quite a punch in and of itself.
The cops life described here is harsh and brutal as looked at here in the 70's.
Kent Anderson is a great writer who takes you to the seedier side of town, deep into the no-man's land of crime and punishment.
His realistic look at a survivor of Vietnam, war veteran-turned cop Hanson, is an engaging character who fights his inner demons as well as his town.
I usually don't even read this type of novel, but this one was riveting and so harsh, you couldn't help but keep reading throughtout the days and nights to its climax.
A must read for those who like something more than crime drama, but is in fact a look into a man's head who is fighting his inner demons.

I have never felt compelled to write a review before, but I feel the need to comment on this book.

For background, I am a USMC veteran and a deputy sheriff (11 years). I am also an avid reader. I have never read a book that so accurately portrays the mindset and perspective of a veteran/cop. No other fictional book even comes close. If you are looking for some nuanced story with hidden meanings you have to ferret out, this isn't it. If you are looking for a plodding proceedural story, this is also not for you. Hence the negative reviews. This has the general feel of a "noir" story that is compounded with a crushing hyper reality. A lot of the tedious, mind numbing realities of soldiering and being a cop are absent and the action cuts from one event to another.

That being said, NO OTHER AUTHOR has even come remotely close to expressing the dark humor, the social anxiety, self-destructive depression and generally negative world view that afflicts many cops. This is a thin veneer of fiction over the Anderson's history. It also jams the reader's face in the stench of society's gutter, where police have to work every day and where a lot of people live. Often, over time, you find more in common with the criminal than the profoundly clueless people we are sworn to protect. If the last two sentences bother you, skip this book and settle in to some CSI garbage.

Anderson has also written another book called Sympathy for the Devil. It's main character is also Hanson. If you liked Night Dogs, you will also love this.

There are a lot of reasons not to read Kent Anderson's "Night Dogs". Aging Viet Nam War protestors, dusting off old placards and tired slogans to recycle for the War in Iraq, will be infuriated with Anderson's laser-focused skewering of the liberal mindset. Those wishing to maintain a romantic view of an idyllic northwest paradise will risk having these illusions shattered by Anderson's Portland's mean streets of depravity and violence. If you prefer neat little stories ending with the bad guys rightfully dispatched, you'll find little redemption here. And anyone with the slightest affection for dogs or kids will cringe in the raw reality of this unvarnished tale of a street cop's nightly grind in post-Viet Nam America. So while there are lots of reasons not to read "Night Dogs", you'd be missing a powerful example of American fiction at its best, a gut-wrenching and emotionally draining dissection of pop culture disguised as a crime novel.

Street cop "Hanson" is a unique and tragic hero - an Army Special Forces veteran from Viet Nam, returning to test his well-honed skills for survival and violence in Portland's worst neighborhoods. Loosely autobiographical, the two decades that have passed since the end of the war and the writing of "Night Dogs" have done little to blunt the ferocity and passion of Anderson's lean prose. Far from Dirty Harry, Anderson's stoic and cynical loner Hanson delivers his brand of street justice without theatrics - he is simply the cop on his beat doing his job while doing his best to bury the daily horror show of his life with drugs, alcohol, and rough sex. Non linear with little allegiance to a central plot, the reader is led in stops and starts from the jungles of Viet Nam to the night shift in a Portland patrol car. Make no mistake - this is not a "pleasant" read. Brutal and violent - the "dog lab" is one of the most disturbing chapters of fiction I've ever read - Anderson pulls no punches and offers no apologies. "Night Dogs" may shock you, it may enrage you, it may make you cry, but it will also make you better understand and appreciate a period of American history many of us would just as soon forget.

I met Kent Anderson as a student when he was teaching at Boise State University. While working on a paper which dealt with trying to understand the "combat high," I read his fantastic "Sympathy for the Devil" and got hooked on his Hanson character. Years before "Night Dogs" came out, he talked about some of the things he was going to put into the book, so I had been waiting a long time to see Hanson re-emerge. Alas, I was not disappointed, "Night Dogs" has that same pushing-the-envelope realism I loved in "Sympathy." The Hanson character is an amazing paradox of savagery and kindness wrapped up like a too-tightly-bound rubber band ready to explode or implode at any moment. Like "Sympathy," "Night Dogs" has the same feel of sanity in a world of insanity, of living hard with memories and the realities of a street cop's life. The streets of Portland take on the same insane, sad, and humorous elements that Hanson's Vietnam had. "Night Dogs" has an expertly woven surreal quality that few authors can capture. Anderson makes mention of author James Crumley in "Night Dogs". On a whim, I researched his works and have also become addicted to his fiction. He too writes of Vietnam and hard living, and I recommend any of his works as well. Kent Anderson is an amazing writer who I hope will continue to share Hanson with us and, for that matter, anything else he might grace us with.