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Hanson #3
El sol verde
Año 1983. Oakland, en California, es una ciudad sacudida por los conflictos raciales y el crimen violento.
El agente Hanson, un policía blanco, patrulla las calles en soledad; su mayor preocupación no es aplicar las leyes de California, sino dispensar su visión propia de la justicia.
Ha vuelto a la policía tras abandonar los estudios de posgrado y su carrera como profesor de literatura inglesa, y con ello la esperanza de que los libros y la lengua lo salven de la persona en quien se convirtió durante su servicio como sargento de las Fuerzas Especiales en Vietnam, donde la muerte fue su compañera y maestra. Mientras patrulla por East Oakland, Hanson procura ignorar el estrés postraumático que lo persigue desde la guerra, para poder ser honesto y justo en el ejercicio de la ley, sea cual sea el riesgo.
En contra de los dictados de su placa, Hanson entabla amistad con Weegee, un niño de once años; se enamora de Libya, una mujer negra de su distrito; y entrelaza su destino con el de Felix Maxwell, el rey de la droga de Oakland y su malhadado hermano en la tragedia.
El agente Hanson, un policía blanco, patrulla las calles en soledad; su mayor preocupación no es aplicar las leyes de California, sino dispensar su visión propia de la justicia.
Ha vuelto a la policía tras abandonar los estudios de posgrado y su carrera como profesor de literatura inglesa, y con ello la esperanza de que los libros y la lengua lo salven de la persona en quien se convirtió durante su servicio como sargento de las Fuerzas Especiales en Vietnam, donde la muerte fue su compañera y maestra. Mientras patrulla por East Oakland, Hanson procura ignorar el estrés postraumático que lo persigue desde la guerra, para poder ser honesto y justo en el ejercicio de la ley, sea cual sea el riesgo.
En contra de los dictados de su placa, Hanson entabla amistad con Weegee, un niño de once años; se enamora de Libya, una mujer negra de su distrito; y entrelaza su destino con el de Felix Maxwell, el rey de la droga de Oakland y su malhadado hermano en la tragedia.
408 pages, Paperback
First published February 22, 2018
140 people are currently reading
1445 people want to read
About the author
Kent Anderson
17 books159 followers Ordinary Seaman (deck hand) on merchant ships age 19-21.
Special Forces (Green Beret) Sgt. in Vietnam, 1969-1970, 2 Bronze Stars.
Police Officer, Portland, OR. Police Bureau, 1972-1976.
NEA Grant for Fiction Writing, 1976 #1.
MFA in Fiction Writing, University of Montana, 1978.
Police Officer, Oakland California Police Dept. 1983-1984, resigned after 15 months to write Sympathy for the Devil, 1st novel.
Assistant Professor of English at UTEP, El Paso. Creative writing instructor, UCLA.
Screenwriter, New Line Cinema for four years, working with Director John Milius.
NEA Grant For Fiction Writing, 1990 #2.
Assistant Professor of English at BSU, Boise, ID, seven years.
Night Dogs, 2nd novel, a NY Times Notable Book of the Year. Winner, French .38 Special Award for best novel of the year.
Currently in Santa Fe, NM finishing Green Sun, 3rd book of the Hanson trilogy.
Note: Only person in history to be awarded 2 NEA Grants + Two Bronze Stars.
Special Forces (Green Beret) Sgt. in Vietnam, 1969-1970, 2 Bronze Stars.
Police Officer, Portland, OR. Police Bureau, 1972-1976.
NEA Grant for Fiction Writing, 1976 #1.
MFA in Fiction Writing, University of Montana, 1978.
Police Officer, Oakland California Police Dept. 1983-1984, resigned after 15 months to write Sympathy for the Devil, 1st novel.
Assistant Professor of English at UTEP, El Paso. Creative writing instructor, UCLA.
Screenwriter, New Line Cinema for four years, working with Director John Milius.
NEA Grant For Fiction Writing, 1990 #2.
Assistant Professor of English at BSU, Boise, ID, seven years.
Night Dogs, 2nd novel, a NY Times Notable Book of the Year. Winner, French .38 Special Award for best novel of the year.
Currently in Santa Fe, NM finishing Green Sun, 3rd book of the Hanson trilogy.
Note: Only person in history to be awarded 2 NEA Grants + Two Bronze Stars.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 108 reviews
January 4, 2024
Hanson is a former Vietnam Vet and Portland, Oregon cop, now patrolling the racially diverse and mean streets of Oakland, California in the 1980s.
His former time in Oregon apparently counts for nothing as he’s treated like a ‘wet behind the ears’ rookie by many of his police colleagues - but nothing is further from the truth.
He’s world weary, unorthodox - offering resolution rather than confrontation in his interactions.
He’s keeping his head down, trying to stay invisible and at the same time tick the boxes that will get him through his probation, washed down with a few slugs of tequila along the way.
He sees racism, but doesn’t see race himself. Treating everyone the same way, he strikes up a friendship with a local black teenager, Weegee, as well as a kind of respectful acquaintance with the local drug kingpin, Felix Maxwell.
He antagonises his fellow officers by refusing to corroborate their ‘agent provocateur’ arrest as being lawful, but instead clings to his own code of what’s right and what’s wrong.
Green Sun emerges as a mournful praise to a policeman trapped in a system that’s neither fair to the cops, or the people they’re policing. A wall in the Police Station (with the names of officers killed in the line of duty), bears witness to the dangers they face on a day to day basis and yet there is never any backup available in these budget constrained times.
Hanson survives by making just enough arrests and citations to keep his head below the parapet, whilst not compromising his own beliefs.
Inevitably, he is faced with a number of choices in rapid succession. It’s how he deals with these choices and the person you’ve seen grow through the book, that makes those decisions stark, yet true to the man you’ve come to know.
A truly compelling read!
His former time in Oregon apparently counts for nothing as he’s treated like a ‘wet behind the ears’ rookie by many of his police colleagues - but nothing is further from the truth.
He’s world weary, unorthodox - offering resolution rather than confrontation in his interactions.
He’s keeping his head down, trying to stay invisible and at the same time tick the boxes that will get him through his probation, washed down with a few slugs of tequila along the way.
He sees racism, but doesn’t see race himself. Treating everyone the same way, he strikes up a friendship with a local black teenager, Weegee, as well as a kind of respectful acquaintance with the local drug kingpin, Felix Maxwell.
He antagonises his fellow officers by refusing to corroborate their ‘agent provocateur’ arrest as being lawful, but instead clings to his own code of what’s right and what’s wrong.
Green Sun emerges as a mournful praise to a policeman trapped in a system that’s neither fair to the cops, or the people they’re policing. A wall in the Police Station (with the names of officers killed in the line of duty), bears witness to the dangers they face on a day to day basis and yet there is never any backup available in these budget constrained times.
Hanson survives by making just enough arrests and citations to keep his head below the parapet, whilst not compromising his own beliefs.
Inevitably, he is faced with a number of choices in rapid succession. It’s how he deals with these choices and the person you’ve seen grow through the book, that makes those decisions stark, yet true to the man you’ve come to know.
A truly compelling read!
December 18, 2019
Kent Anderson is not the most prolific of writers, but he certainly is one of the best, and he demonstrates this again with Green Sun, which was released last year. This is the third novel featuring a Vietnam-era Special Forces soldier-turned-cop named Hanson, following Sympathy For The Devil (1987) and Night Dogs (1996).
The first book detailed Hanson's experiences in the Vietnam War. The second followed his stint as a cop in Portland, Oregon. The new book, set in 1983, finds him as a thirty-eight-year-old rookie cop in Oakland, California, a city torn apart by crime and racial divisions. The city's police department doesn't begin to have the money or the manpower to police the streets effectively, let alone humanely. Hanson patrols some of the meanest streets in the city all by himself in squad car that is barely functional and rarely with any backup.
The police force is still overwhelmingly white, and the approach of most of the other white cops who patrol the black areas of the city is to impose their will on the citizens by brutal force, intimidating anyone who would dare challenge their authority. They are much less concerned about justice than they are about maintaining control and, inevitably of course, they have alienated the city's black population.
Especially in a situation like this, Hanson is a fish out of water. He's older than most of the other patrolman and even though he has experience as a cop in Portland, he's forced to start at the bottom of the department in Oakland. As a liberal arts graduate who briefly taught college before joining the Oakland force, he takes a different view of the job--one that immediately alienates his superiors and most of his fellow cops. Hanson is more of a social worker than a typical Oakland cop. Unlike his fellow officers, he'd much rather defuse a situation and send everyone home peacefully rather than breaking heads. Given that he is a white cop, he's automatically suspect and while he tries to build a rapport with the black citizens whom he is supposed to serve and protect, it's a hard uphill climb.
Hanson is mostly on duty at night, and the book follows him from one incident to another as he patrols his sector of the city, tries to serve the citizens as best he can, and attempts to keep his own bosses from coming down on him. It's a thankless and virtually impossible task, and in parts, the story is horribly bleak and depressing.
What lifts it up though, and what makes this such an engaging book, is Hanson's character. He's among the most solitary protagonists you will ever meet in crime fiction these days--a loner's loner. But at heart he is such a good and decent man, in spite of all of the problems he faces, that you can't help but root for the man and be inspired by him. Even above and beyond that is the quality of Kent Anderson's writing, which is simply beautiful even in spite of the horrors that unfold in the story.
Anderson was himself a Special Forces soldier and a beat cop both in Portland and in Oakland. Clearly he knows the territory, and this book, along with Night Dogs, are probably the most authentic novels about police work that you will ever read. Anderson's biography says that he may be the only person in the country's history to have been awarded two NEA grants as well as two Combat Bronze Stars, and clearly these experiences have served him and his readers well. A fantastic book and a great character than no reader will soon forget.
The first book detailed Hanson's experiences in the Vietnam War. The second followed his stint as a cop in Portland, Oregon. The new book, set in 1983, finds him as a thirty-eight-year-old rookie cop in Oakland, California, a city torn apart by crime and racial divisions. The city's police department doesn't begin to have the money or the manpower to police the streets effectively, let alone humanely. Hanson patrols some of the meanest streets in the city all by himself in squad car that is barely functional and rarely with any backup.
The police force is still overwhelmingly white, and the approach of most of the other white cops who patrol the black areas of the city is to impose their will on the citizens by brutal force, intimidating anyone who would dare challenge their authority. They are much less concerned about justice than they are about maintaining control and, inevitably of course, they have alienated the city's black population.
Especially in a situation like this, Hanson is a fish out of water. He's older than most of the other patrolman and even though he has experience as a cop in Portland, he's forced to start at the bottom of the department in Oakland. As a liberal arts graduate who briefly taught college before joining the Oakland force, he takes a different view of the job--one that immediately alienates his superiors and most of his fellow cops. Hanson is more of a social worker than a typical Oakland cop. Unlike his fellow officers, he'd much rather defuse a situation and send everyone home peacefully rather than breaking heads. Given that he is a white cop, he's automatically suspect and while he tries to build a rapport with the black citizens whom he is supposed to serve and protect, it's a hard uphill climb.
Hanson is mostly on duty at night, and the book follows him from one incident to another as he patrols his sector of the city, tries to serve the citizens as best he can, and attempts to keep his own bosses from coming down on him. It's a thankless and virtually impossible task, and in parts, the story is horribly bleak and depressing.
What lifts it up though, and what makes this such an engaging book, is Hanson's character. He's among the most solitary protagonists you will ever meet in crime fiction these days--a loner's loner. But at heart he is such a good and decent man, in spite of all of the problems he faces, that you can't help but root for the man and be inspired by him. Even above and beyond that is the quality of Kent Anderson's writing, which is simply beautiful even in spite of the horrors that unfold in the story.
Anderson was himself a Special Forces soldier and a beat cop both in Portland and in Oakland. Clearly he knows the territory, and this book, along with Night Dogs, are probably the most authentic novels about police work that you will ever read. Anderson's biography says that he may be the only person in the country's history to have been awarded two NEA grants as well as two Combat Bronze Stars, and clearly these experiences have served him and his readers well. A fantastic book and a great character than no reader will soon forget.
March 12, 2018
In this, the third book by Kent Anderson about Hanson, who thinks of himself as a social worker with a gun, we get multiple views into his character. Like a multi-faceted fun house mirror we get glimpses from all sides of his personality.
The novel “Green Sun” is set in 1983, Hanson has returned to police work as a beat cop in the economically depressed neighborhoods of East Oakland, California. In the first book 1987’s “Sympathy for the Devil” we met Hanson as a Special Forces sergeant in Vietnam. Hanson’s expectations were that he would die in the war. “Sympathy for the Devil” contains some of the best prose ever written. Don’t let the war setting put you off. The book has been called one of the best books written about Vietnam and the behind the scenes occurrences that went on there.
In book two, “Night Dogs” (1997), Hanson has become a cop in the North Precinct of Portland, Oregon. He has traded his Bronze Star for a policeman’s badge. Hanson fears nothing, except his own memories. He must work with men who are corrupt and some who would want to destroy him. The book does not shy away from violence. The writing is extraordinary.
Now in Book three (2018) Hanson has left behind his teaching position to return to the work he knows best. He is now 38, a bit old to be a start-over cop. Life is not easy for Hanson and he must survive his probationary period. Anderson is adept at finding a terrible kind of beauty in the worst circumstances. The book is a meditation on power, violence and the intractability of pain. It is not filled with the normal clichés usually found in cop stories. Anderson makes it all feel real on all levels.
Highly Recommended.
The novel “Green Sun” is set in 1983, Hanson has returned to police work as a beat cop in the economically depressed neighborhoods of East Oakland, California. In the first book 1987’s “Sympathy for the Devil” we met Hanson as a Special Forces sergeant in Vietnam. Hanson’s expectations were that he would die in the war. “Sympathy for the Devil” contains some of the best prose ever written. Don’t let the war setting put you off. The book has been called one of the best books written about Vietnam and the behind the scenes occurrences that went on there.
In book two, “Night Dogs” (1997), Hanson has become a cop in the North Precinct of Portland, Oregon. He has traded his Bronze Star for a policeman’s badge. Hanson fears nothing, except his own memories. He must work with men who are corrupt and some who would want to destroy him. The book does not shy away from violence. The writing is extraordinary.
Now in Book three (2018) Hanson has left behind his teaching position to return to the work he knows best. He is now 38, a bit old to be a start-over cop. Life is not easy for Hanson and he must survive his probationary period. Anderson is adept at finding a terrible kind of beauty in the worst circumstances. The book is a meditation on power, violence and the intractability of pain. It is not filled with the normal clichés usually found in cop stories. Anderson makes it all feel real on all levels.
Highly Recommended.
April 10, 2019
Book Reviewed by Clive on www.whisperingstories.com
Green Sun is the third novel by Kent Anderson to feature Hanson (we are not given a first name) and what a great character he is. Physically strong, brave and fearless he patrols the tougher streets of Oakland alone in his police car, usually working nights. He is very much a loner who does not relate to his colleagues. He has no friends or family and struggles with demons from his time in Vietnam.
One reason that Hanson’s character is so convincing is because his background is almost identical to that of the author. I only hope that the author does not suffer in the same way from his own memories of that war.
Most of the action relates to the various incidents that Hanson attends which are accompanied by a few ongoing threads of an overall story. That lack of a plot does not disadvantage the tale in any way because the smaller stories are fascinating and Anderson creates such tension and atmosphere that you have to keep turning the pages.
Interspersed with the incidents are dreams and recollections of Hanson’s time in Vietnam which were clearly harrowing. Having somehow managed to cheat death in the Vietnam conflict Hanson has little concern for his own safety which explains the fearless way that he copes with his demanding role.
The support characters of Felix, Levon, Tyree, Weegee and Libya will all capture your imagination, regardless of any initial judgements you may make on their various lifestyles.
Given Anderson’s masterful writing talent I was a little surprised to see that he has only published four novels in a period spanning over thirty years. For the sake of his readers and for his future readers, I hope that the success of Green Sun will inspire him to produce more of the same in the near future.
Green Sun will hold your attention and it will provoke your thoughts. I have awarded four stars.
Green Sun is the third novel by Kent Anderson to feature Hanson (we are not given a first name) and what a great character he is. Physically strong, brave and fearless he patrols the tougher streets of Oakland alone in his police car, usually working nights. He is very much a loner who does not relate to his colleagues. He has no friends or family and struggles with demons from his time in Vietnam.
One reason that Hanson’s character is so convincing is because his background is almost identical to that of the author. I only hope that the author does not suffer in the same way from his own memories of that war.
Most of the action relates to the various incidents that Hanson attends which are accompanied by a few ongoing threads of an overall story. That lack of a plot does not disadvantage the tale in any way because the smaller stories are fascinating and Anderson creates such tension and atmosphere that you have to keep turning the pages.
Interspersed with the incidents are dreams and recollections of Hanson’s time in Vietnam which were clearly harrowing. Having somehow managed to cheat death in the Vietnam conflict Hanson has little concern for his own safety which explains the fearless way that he copes with his demanding role.
The support characters of Felix, Levon, Tyree, Weegee and Libya will all capture your imagination, regardless of any initial judgements you may make on their various lifestyles.
Given Anderson’s masterful writing talent I was a little surprised to see that he has only published four novels in a period spanning over thirty years. For the sake of his readers and for his future readers, I hope that the success of Green Sun will inspire him to produce more of the same in the near future.
Green Sun will hold your attention and it will provoke your thoughts. I have awarded four stars.
January 30, 2020
As someone who has worked in the demanding field of law-enforcement myself, I can authoritatively state that in his novel Green Sun, author Kent Anderson gets a lot of the gritty difficulties of this tough occupation spot on. Now unlike Anderson’s hero, the newly graduated beat-cop Hanson who patrols the tough Oakland streets in the early 1980’s, I performed my civic service walking the perilous halls of Worthington Middle School as a fledgling hall monitor so green behind the ears that you would swear my head was a crunchy Vlasic Kosher dill pickle spear with hair. But the dangerous streets of ‘80’s Oakland are not so different from my middle school hallways where various 6th, 7th, and 8th graders matriculate (or as we referred to it on the force: "loitering with books"). For example they both places have a lot of chewing gum stuck to the ground. You gotta watch yourself or that crap will stick right to your shoes. Both times the populace that is being protected by the police have zero respect for their authority and often times they will either be jammed into lockers by much larger upperclassmen or have their underpants forcibly yanked upwards from behind. And don’t even get me started on all the hookers.
In Green Sun, Hanson, the hero from two previous Anderson novels is forced to deal with his racist and violent fellow policemen, a distrustful Oakland populace, and the criminals he is hired to apprehend. It’s a lot and Hanson who starts his new career working with the citizens of Oakland (instead of knocking heads like he is instructed) finds himself daily sinking into a haze of alcohol, bitterness, and increasing meanness. The story is written with such detail you can feel hot California asphalt under your feet, see the grit of the alleyways, and smell the B.O. of the motorcycle cops. There is a reason such prestigious writers such as Michael Connelly (“the best of what crime fiction can do!”), James Patterson (“so awesome, dude, but the chapters seem a little long!”) and Stephen King (“if Anderson only included more killer clowns lurking in the sewers it would be the Great American Novel!”) have raved about this story. It’s really good!
In Green Sun, Hanson, the hero from two previous Anderson novels is forced to deal with his racist and violent fellow policemen, a distrustful Oakland populace, and the criminals he is hired to apprehend. It’s a lot and Hanson who starts his new career working with the citizens of Oakland (instead of knocking heads like he is instructed) finds himself daily sinking into a haze of alcohol, bitterness, and increasing meanness. The story is written with such detail you can feel hot California asphalt under your feet, see the grit of the alleyways, and smell the B.O. of the motorcycle cops. There is a reason such prestigious writers such as Michael Connelly (“the best of what crime fiction can do!”), James Patterson (“so awesome, dude, but the chapters seem a little long!”) and Stephen King (“if Anderson only included more killer clowns lurking in the sewers it would be the Great American Novel!”) have raved about this story. It’s really good!
April 22, 2018
Green Sun by Kent Anderson follows Officer Hanson during his time as a patrol officer in Oakland, CA. Hanson is a Vietnam war veteran and is with the goal to stay long enough in Oakland to receive the needed requirements that will allow him to move on to greener pastures.
Hanson is obviously world-weary and geared toward doing things his way and in ways that he feels are right even when his methods included violence and even though others may disagree violence.
Through the novel, more often than not and regardless of who the people are, Hanson treats people mostly the way they deserve.
This novel is not a police procedural but rather follows Hanson during his time in Oakland, which typically involves his day to day life and daily work encounters.
Recommended to readers that enjoy novels like Don Winslow's The Force and Joseph Wambaugh's writing.
Hanson is obviously world-weary and geared toward doing things his way and in ways that he feels are right even when his methods included violence and even though others may disagree violence.
Through the novel, more often than not and regardless of who the people are, Hanson treats people mostly the way they deserve.
This novel is not a police procedural but rather follows Hanson during his time in Oakland, which typically involves his day to day life and daily work encounters.
Recommended to readers that enjoy novels like Don Winslow's The Force and Joseph Wambaugh's writing.
March 1, 2018
Officer Hanson walking the beat, hitting the street with no fear of dying, surviving Vietnam back from being from one danger zone to another in Oakland, and with death passing him he is making his way up the ropes to get his certificate, so that he can be a chief, a deputy of some place, a year on the street thats all he wanted to get his POST certificate: Peace Officer Standards and Training.
The author evokes with great craft all that unfolds in the main protagonist Hanson's days on the streets, his clocking in and out and trying to make enough arrests to fill his arrest quota every month. This guy is likeable, the hook in the narrative is will he see it through alive, in the narrative he believes he cannot be killed since surviving war. He brushes with various characters that may just put him up to the test, the likes of one Felix Maxwell, Oakland’s major dope dealer, who drives a Rolls-Royce and is a killer to boot, all plays out within the shoes of a character from that show and true narrative the Wire. He has offers made to him from many, from love to hush money, with some possible love interest in the wings and possibly promotion or he just saving general public from harm. As a legit man caring for people he has the reader empathically reading on in his endeavours, conflicts, and dogging bullets.
The writing is top notch here, the author has a keen eye for putting you there in the scene, a time of no cctv and just before first mobiles came on to the seen, in and out on the beat becoming alive and intriguing upon the page. Officer Hanson, despite his flaws who has an ability if needed to carry out killing with precision and unflinching swiftness but chooses most times to talk people out of trouble into custody and always use gun last unless except the situation needed it, his enforcing law comes with heart, conscious, and smarts, some would hate him and some like him.
The author a veteran of war and an ex-cop has written what he knows with clarity and some good writing, social commentary, and some heart in the details.
Review @ https://more2read.com/review/green-sun-by-kent-anderson/
The author evokes with great craft all that unfolds in the main protagonist Hanson's days on the streets, his clocking in and out and trying to make enough arrests to fill his arrest quota every month. This guy is likeable, the hook in the narrative is will he see it through alive, in the narrative he believes he cannot be killed since surviving war. He brushes with various characters that may just put him up to the test, the likes of one Felix Maxwell, Oakland’s major dope dealer, who drives a Rolls-Royce and is a killer to boot, all plays out within the shoes of a character from that show and true narrative the Wire. He has offers made to him from many, from love to hush money, with some possible love interest in the wings and possibly promotion or he just saving general public from harm. As a legit man caring for people he has the reader empathically reading on in his endeavours, conflicts, and dogging bullets.
The writing is top notch here, the author has a keen eye for putting you there in the scene, a time of no cctv and just before first mobiles came on to the seen, in and out on the beat becoming alive and intriguing upon the page. Officer Hanson, despite his flaws who has an ability if needed to carry out killing with precision and unflinching swiftness but chooses most times to talk people out of trouble into custody and always use gun last unless except the situation needed it, his enforcing law comes with heart, conscious, and smarts, some would hate him and some like him.
The author a veteran of war and an ex-cop has written what he knows with clarity and some good writing, social commentary, and some heart in the details.
Review @ https://more2read.com/review/green-sun-by-kent-anderson/
March 27, 2020
Not my Oakland! One thing that attracted me to this book about a Vietnam Vet turned Oakland Police officer is the time and the setting. About then I had been promoted to head the Sacramento office of a financial planning firm and was sent to be the Assistant Manager in San Francisco as part of my training. Cheap SOB's that they were, they expected me to cover the cost of staying there and even in the early 80's San Francisco was not cheap! So, I managed to find a rooming house near Lake Merritt in Oakland and would take BART into the big city every day and commute home to Sacramento on weekends.
Well, Lake Merritt is a lovely area and figures predominantly in the story, and the cop actually lives not far from where I was. (Don't know if the rooming house still stands.) Frankly I did not stray far from there other than making it to the BART station so I really never got to be familiar with EAst Oakland which is where he patrolled, and I am glad I didn't as it is where most of the crime takes place. He's is a white officer patrolling mainly black areas but rather than acting as a battering ram like most of the department he somehow manages to defuse a lot of situations by himself and part of the interest in this book is how he does it. A major factor is his military background and the psychological factors that resulted, PTSD, alcohol abuse but at his core he does not lose his humanity. His major goal is to stay on the force long enough to get his certification so that he can move on to another area that is a bit less deadly.
Some interesting character development, unusually good descriptive writing and some interesting plot twists. Certainly a worthy read for those hanging at home practicing social distancing at the time of the corona virus.
Well, Lake Merritt is a lovely area and figures predominantly in the story, and the cop actually lives not far from where I was. (Don't know if the rooming house still stands.) Frankly I did not stray far from there other than making it to the BART station so I really never got to be familiar with EAst Oakland which is where he patrolled, and I am glad I didn't as it is where most of the crime takes place. He's is a white officer patrolling mainly black areas but rather than acting as a battering ram like most of the department he somehow manages to defuse a lot of situations by himself and part of the interest in this book is how he does it. A major factor is his military background and the psychological factors that resulted, PTSD, alcohol abuse but at his core he does not lose his humanity. His major goal is to stay on the force long enough to get his certification so that he can move on to another area that is a bit less deadly.
Some interesting character development, unusually good descriptive writing and some interesting plot twists. Certainly a worthy read for those hanging at home practicing social distancing at the time of the corona virus.
April 12, 2018
The third in the series of Hanson finds him back in law enforcement, this time in Oakland. He has fled from academia in Idaho to seek refuge in the only thing he has ever been good at- being the man and killing. He is a troubled soul but a fearless survivor. This book continues the haunting, noir-ish plot that is his life.
He is an outlier in the Oakland Police Department at 38 years of age. He is not trusted and he doesn’t care. He has more respect and humanity for the disadvantaged and criminal element than for his brother officers, many of whom are just putting in time and crunching numbers. He’s good at writing reports but hates paperwork and all the bureaucratic bullshit. He diffuses situations and gives credit to others for arrests. His street skills enable him to cultivate a relationship with the biggest drug dealer in Oakland while making him a pariah and suspect to his peers and Internal Affairs. He’s drinking too much and not sleeping well. His dreams are chronicled. Something has got to give. He can’t sustain this pace. But he’s already dead. That’s what gives him the power.
Another compelling read that was decades in the making. The author now lives in New Mexico and in 2013 was involved in an altercation with a knife wielding drunk driver. Anderson received 20 stitches while shooting the suspect.
I don’t want to wait another decade for Hanson #4. Like cowbell I need more Hanson and I need it now.
He is an outlier in the Oakland Police Department at 38 years of age. He is not trusted and he doesn’t care. He has more respect and humanity for the disadvantaged and criminal element than for his brother officers, many of whom are just putting in time and crunching numbers. He’s good at writing reports but hates paperwork and all the bureaucratic bullshit. He diffuses situations and gives credit to others for arrests. His street skills enable him to cultivate a relationship with the biggest drug dealer in Oakland while making him a pariah and suspect to his peers and Internal Affairs. He’s drinking too much and not sleeping well. His dreams are chronicled. Something has got to give. He can’t sustain this pace. But he’s already dead. That’s what gives him the power.
Another compelling read that was decades in the making. The author now lives in New Mexico and in 2013 was involved in an altercation with a knife wielding drunk driver. Anderson received 20 stitches while shooting the suspect.
I don’t want to wait another decade for Hanson #4. Like cowbell I need more Hanson and I need it now.
Read
March 31, 2018DNF at page 75.
This is some beautifully written stuff right here but I keep picking it up and putting it down without any urge to return to it so due to the sheer mountain of books awaiting my attention I've decided to put it aside now. For whatever reason it just wasn't engaging me. It is possible I will return to it.
This is some beautifully written stuff right here but I keep picking it up and putting it down without any urge to return to it so due to the sheer mountain of books awaiting my attention I've decided to put it aside now. For whatever reason it just wasn't engaging me. It is possible I will return to it.
March 7, 2018
While a fascinating look into early 1980's social abuse and specifically the Oakland area and the abuse of the area by everyone there and involved in the area you find one man, our protagonist, Hansen, trying to do a job that he is not all together suited for.
Alcoholic and with personal issues that put him against the grain of all around him he survives the purgatory of the book creating a character you are interested in but unsure of throughout. He is a Veteran of the Vietnam war and it's a part of what he is and a good part of his issues.
Overall a good read and interesting if you like police dramas as well as life stories.
Alcoholic and with personal issues that put him against the grain of all around him he survives the purgatory of the book creating a character you are interested in but unsure of throughout. He is a Veteran of the Vietnam war and it's a part of what he is and a good part of his issues.
Overall a good read and interesting if you like police dramas as well as life stories.
February 5, 2018
At thirty-eight years old, Hanson finds himself the oldest cadet in the Oakland, California, Police Academy. He was a police officer in Portland for four years-a good one, he thought-before quitting to try teaching at a college in Idaho. That didn't work out, so he went to Oakland, hired sight unseen by a Lieutenant who had departed the agency before Hanson even arrived, leaving him at the mercy of a department that opposed his hiring and would do what he could to rid the Oakland PD of the old recruit. But Hanson is not a quitter.
GREEN SUN is the third novel by Kent Anderson about Hanson following SYMPATHY FOR THE DEVIL and NIGHT DOGS. It starts at the end of his teaching career in Idaho and follows him through the Oakland Police Academy and about a year as a patrol officer. Despite his antipathy for police work and the people he works with, he takes the job seriously and does his best to do it fairly, usually avoid violence, and get through his eighteen months to earn his Peace Officer Standards & Training (POST) Certificate, so he can move on to another department.
"A place where…he'd be the law, an armed social worker enforcing the social contract of that particular jurisdiction. Where justice would be more important that the California Penal Code…and hell, do it without a gun…He didn't need a gun, only morons needed a gun."
Hanson struggles every day with his job: the quotas, violence, and ulterior motives of his peers and supervisors.
"But he was an asshole, he thought. Didn't matter, just another asshole cop. Pretty soon he'd fit right in, one of the guys finally. If he'd start arresting everybody he could, pile up citations and kiss enough ass, he might make sergeant someday, or get on a special drug squad with the special assholes."
Hanson doesn't want to be the asshole he thought was becoming but was not perfect. He makes arrests to keep the brass off his back, nearly succumbs to seduction, uses force, befriends a drug dealer, and is no stranger to drugs and alcohol abuse himself. He sometimes feels as if he's already dead, and therefore does not fear death, knowing it's inevitable, even while finding peace with a woman and hope in a young man he befriends in his neighborhood.
GREEN SUN has an abstract feel to it, Hanson being disconnected from much of the world and himself, in a state between life and death. Some chapters read like short stories, establishing Hanson as a character and police officer, giving the reader a look at policing in the 1980s, but not otherwise moving the plot forward. In some ways, those are the chapters I enjoyed the most and found most relatable.
GREEN SUN offers a vivid look into the failures of policing of the 1980s through the eyes of an imperfect but hopeful character. Set solidly in the era of the establishment of professional policing--"…standardize cops, crank them out and deploy them as interchangeable cop units." --that measured the successes in numbers of arrests and other data while minimizing the value of community policing while solidifying what became the drug war as we know it. The remnants of both of those arguably failed approaches are still being combatted today.
GREEN SUN is the third novel by Kent Anderson about Hanson following SYMPATHY FOR THE DEVIL and NIGHT DOGS. It starts at the end of his teaching career in Idaho and follows him through the Oakland Police Academy and about a year as a patrol officer. Despite his antipathy for police work and the people he works with, he takes the job seriously and does his best to do it fairly, usually avoid violence, and get through his eighteen months to earn his Peace Officer Standards & Training (POST) Certificate, so he can move on to another department.
"A place where…he'd be the law, an armed social worker enforcing the social contract of that particular jurisdiction. Where justice would be more important that the California Penal Code…and hell, do it without a gun…He didn't need a gun, only morons needed a gun."
Hanson struggles every day with his job: the quotas, violence, and ulterior motives of his peers and supervisors.
"But he was an asshole, he thought. Didn't matter, just another asshole cop. Pretty soon he'd fit right in, one of the guys finally. If he'd start arresting everybody he could, pile up citations and kiss enough ass, he might make sergeant someday, or get on a special drug squad with the special assholes."
Hanson doesn't want to be the asshole he thought was becoming but was not perfect. He makes arrests to keep the brass off his back, nearly succumbs to seduction, uses force, befriends a drug dealer, and is no stranger to drugs and alcohol abuse himself. He sometimes feels as if he's already dead, and therefore does not fear death, knowing it's inevitable, even while finding peace with a woman and hope in a young man he befriends in his neighborhood.
GREEN SUN has an abstract feel to it, Hanson being disconnected from much of the world and himself, in a state between life and death. Some chapters read like short stories, establishing Hanson as a character and police officer, giving the reader a look at policing in the 1980s, but not otherwise moving the plot forward. In some ways, those are the chapters I enjoyed the most and found most relatable.
GREEN SUN offers a vivid look into the failures of policing of the 1980s through the eyes of an imperfect but hopeful character. Set solidly in the era of the establishment of professional policing--"…standardize cops, crank them out and deploy them as interchangeable cop units." --that measured the successes in numbers of arrests and other data while minimizing the value of community policing while solidifying what became the drug war as we know it. The remnants of both of those arguably failed approaches are still being combatted today.
March 30, 2018
This is the third novel in the Hanson series by Kent Anderson and it comes some 20 years or so after the second instalment. The year is 1983 and after a short spell as a college teacher, Hanson decides that a life in the academia is not for him and he returns to law enforcement, this time with the Oakland Police Department in California. Unfortunately, although he has previous Police experience in Portland (see Night Dogs), as a 38 year old recruit, he has to return to Police College and undertake a 5 month training course. The instructors try their best to force him out but Hanson survives and takes up his position as a patrolman with the OPD. Because of underfunding and staff shortages he finds himself patrolling alone, mostly in the mainly black neighbourhoods of East Oakland. This may also be out of design by his superior officers, in a further effort to get Hanson to quit but although still haunted by his demons from his time serving in Vietnam (see Sympathy for the Devil), the street is where he feels most at home.
Like 'Night Dogs' before it, this novel is made up of a collection of incidents that Hanson has to deal with while out on the beat but there are also recurring characters, some of whom Hanson befriends. Like Weegee, the young black kid who cycles round the neighbourhood and who eventually gains Hanson's trust. There is also Lewis Maxwell, the local drug kingpin, for whom each have a grudging respect, despite being on different sides of the fence. Although Hanson still has his mental health and physical issues and has to temper these with alcohol and drugs in his off duty hours. While on duty, even though he has to suppress his need for violence, I think this is a slightly more mellow Hanson, who, if it can be avoided, will try and cajole his suspects to come peaceably lest he succumbs to his violent tendencies. He explains that he is unafraid of death and welcomes the rest it will bring and he also frequently glimpses 'Death' himself, hiding in the shadows out on the street.
Again this is another brilliant novel from Anderson and one wonders whether or not we will get any further publications from him, considering how long it took for this novel to surface but I can always re-read these again if need be.
Like 'Night Dogs' before it, this novel is made up of a collection of incidents that Hanson has to deal with while out on the beat but there are also recurring characters, some of whom Hanson befriends. Like Weegee, the young black kid who cycles round the neighbourhood and who eventually gains Hanson's trust. There is also Lewis Maxwell, the local drug kingpin, for whom each have a grudging respect, despite being on different sides of the fence. Although Hanson still has his mental health and physical issues and has to temper these with alcohol and drugs in his off duty hours. While on duty, even though he has to suppress his need for violence, I think this is a slightly more mellow Hanson, who, if it can be avoided, will try and cajole his suspects to come peaceably lest he succumbs to his violent tendencies. He explains that he is unafraid of death and welcomes the rest it will bring and he also frequently glimpses 'Death' himself, hiding in the shadows out on the street.
Again this is another brilliant novel from Anderson and one wonders whether or not we will get any further publications from him, considering how long it took for this novel to surface but I can always re-read these again if need be.
March 5, 2018
I thought this was going to be a police procedural, but it ended up being a meditative, episodic, philosophical, ruminative take on ethical policing that kind of reminded me of The Things They Carry by Tim O'Brien. This is a beautifully surprising novel.
March 25, 2018
It's been nearly 20 years since we last saw Hanson in the cult classic "Night Dogs."
But Kent Anderson has finally given us the gift of a third book in the Hanson series. It's worth the wait.
Anderson was a Vietnam soldier, a Portland, Or, policeman and a policeman in Oakland. So Hanson follows the author's footsteps, moving from a stint as a college literature professor in Idaho to the mean streets of 1983 Oakland. ("Night Dogs" captured the experience of policing the Portland ghetto in the 70s.)
Hanson is a social worker with a gun, trying to resolve issues without using his gun or having to do paperwork. He has no friends on the police force but becomes friends with an 11-year-old boy who rides a bicycle through the streets and back alleys of East Oakland.
Anderson's police vignettes are like Joseph Wambaugh at his best. His characters and their experiences on the street are gripping, touching and very readable.
If you haven't read "Night Dogs," you owe it to yourself to do so. If you have, you must read this book.
But Kent Anderson has finally given us the gift of a third book in the Hanson series. It's worth the wait.
Anderson was a Vietnam soldier, a Portland, Or, policeman and a policeman in Oakland. So Hanson follows the author's footsteps, moving from a stint as a college literature professor in Idaho to the mean streets of 1983 Oakland. ("Night Dogs" captured the experience of policing the Portland ghetto in the 70s.)
Hanson is a social worker with a gun, trying to resolve issues without using his gun or having to do paperwork. He has no friends on the police force but becomes friends with an 11-year-old boy who rides a bicycle through the streets and back alleys of East Oakland.
Anderson's police vignettes are like Joseph Wambaugh at his best. His characters and their experiences on the street are gripping, touching and very readable.
If you haven't read "Night Dogs," you owe it to yourself to do so. If you have, you must read this book.
March 6, 2018
The author was a Special Forces soldier in Vietnam, a police officer in Portland and Oakland, and also an English professor, screen writer and novelist. Clearly he would be an interesting dinner guest. The protagonist of this stunning novel, Hanson, is a Special Forces soldier in Vietnam vet, had been a police officer in Portland and is now working for the Oakland PD, so I guess the author knows his character. The book has received terrific reviews and they are deserved. Anderson’s writing reminds me of Michael Connelly, and that is a very good thing. Hanson clearly has issues about the brutal things he has done and is trying to figure his place in the world. Oakland is almost like Vietnam, a place of violence and misery, but Hanson does his best to see what might be good there, to protect it, and to make it better if possible. He earns the grudging respect of the biggest, meanest drug lord in town, but it is an uneasy relationship. Despite Hanson’s nihilistic tendencies, he struggles for redemption with a local woman and her half brother. The descriptive writing is strong and the story unfolds in bites-sized episodes that seem to convey the experiences of a white policeman in a largely black city. As Michael Connelly says, this is “the best of the best in American storytelling today”.
February 17, 2018
I feel very fortunate to have received through Goodreads and the publishers Mulholland Books,an uncorrected proof copy of this novel to review.
Based around the character of Hanson, a white officer in the PDO district, the tale revolves around this unconventional human in a whirlpool of prejudice between the black and white communities and criminal elements from both sides. His method of working is alien to those so-called colleagues in the department and his struggle to stay true to himself and his beliefs is utterly riveting.
His love for a black woman brings it's own difficulties and dangers and his struggle with mind and matter is enthralling.
Such a powerful tale, one you can't put down and bound to be a blockbuster.
Based around the character of Hanson, a white officer in the PDO district, the tale revolves around this unconventional human in a whirlpool of prejudice between the black and white communities and criminal elements from both sides. His method of working is alien to those so-called colleagues in the department and his struggle to stay true to himself and his beliefs is utterly riveting.
His love for a black woman brings it's own difficulties and dangers and his struggle with mind and matter is enthralling.
Such a powerful tale, one you can't put down and bound to be a blockbuster.
April 12, 2018
Green Sun is a 'cop book' about a young-ish (38) Viet Nam vet who leaves his job as an English professor to enter the world of the police. His goal is to put in a year as an Oakland cop, obtain the certification that will allow him to be hired anywhere in the state, and then find a nice, cushy position in a smaller town that will challenge him a little, but not too much. In the meantime, he has to be an Oakland cop for a year in a town that's pretty rough in a department that's financially strapped.
Kent Anderson's novel is a truly 'micro' look at policing through one guy's eyes. It's almost entirely episodic, with the chapters usually comprised of the different happenings on various days as he, Officer Hanson, tries to achieve his only goal: staying alive for a year in a dangerous job. At heart, he's a good dude who deals fairly with a lot of 'gray area' stuff in the course of a typical day. He's also, though, prone to violence, drinks a lot, does a few drugs, and has no friends other than a few citizens he runs into during his patrols. There's a good deal of violence, criminality, and bad police behavior but also a surprising amount of humanity that comes through.
Anderson's writing is excellent, very straightforward with good pacing. The dialogue is believable as are the descriptions of the various locales around Oakland that Hanson visits. At nearly 340 pages it's a hefty story, but well worth the effort as you root for a good cop with foibles to reach his goal.
Kent Anderson's novel is a truly 'micro' look at policing through one guy's eyes. It's almost entirely episodic, with the chapters usually comprised of the different happenings on various days as he, Officer Hanson, tries to achieve his only goal: staying alive for a year in a dangerous job. At heart, he's a good dude who deals fairly with a lot of 'gray area' stuff in the course of a typical day. He's also, though, prone to violence, drinks a lot, does a few drugs, and has no friends other than a few citizens he runs into during his patrols. There's a good deal of violence, criminality, and bad police behavior but also a surprising amount of humanity that comes through.
Anderson's writing is excellent, very straightforward with good pacing. The dialogue is believable as are the descriptions of the various locales around Oakland that Hanson visits. At nearly 340 pages it's a hefty story, but well worth the effort as you root for a good cop with foibles to reach his goal.
December 26, 2019
So ...it's a long walk on a dark night in a strange neighborhood. Broken homes, steel bars covering windows and doors, cold stares and animosity everywhere. Laughter and violence emitting from bars. Kids out too late, unattended. Trash piled high, weeds growing through the sidewalks. Need to know the rules to live by and there are a lot of rule. Most carry harsh penalties. It's hard to be human when you are alone in a strange neighborhood. This man is human, but it's a long walk and it's a dark night and the hardest part is to figure who and what to trust.
So ...I wish you luck and I wish you trust in the right people and things, start with yourself. And, I wish you to walk ...like this man did, my final wish is that you learn to forgive yourself.
So you can finish your walk, and see the sun rise, once again.
So ...I wish you luck and I wish you trust in the right people and things, start with yourself. And, I wish you to walk ...like this man did, my final wish is that you learn to forgive yourself.
So you can finish your walk, and see the sun rise, once again.
March 19, 2018
Outstanding. One of the best police novels I have read, even better that Anderson's last one, and I immediately suggested to my brother. I really like Hanson, the way he handles things. Tough, but humane. Able to take heat for not being the automatic bad-ass cop, willing to do the right thing. Anderson obviously writes what he knows, and he does it well. I can't think of anyone not enjoying this novel. I need to catch up with his first entry in the series, SYMPATHY FOR THE DEVIL
July 8, 2021
It was alright. May have helped if I'd read the first two I guess. My view of the book soured after reading the author's bio and it seeming that the character was an idealized version of himself. I tried to think of it as him writing about how he wished he would've comported himself at the time... but even still it felt like a bit of slog finishing it up.
January 13, 2018
Kent Anderson is known primarily for two books, "Sympathy for the Devil" about his time in-country during the Vietnam War, and "Night Dogs," his book about his alter-ego Hanson's time working as a police officer trying to cope with his PTSD while patrolling the streets. Books about war and books about cops tend to draw a lot of comparisons with previous offerings in the genres, but that's not necessary when it comes to Anderson, since (based on what I've read by him) his books are a bit better than everyone else's. He most probably had the last word in the very lengthy conversation (more like shouting match) that was Vietnam War literature.
His book "Green Sun" finds Hanson deciding to give up being a humanities professor in order to rejoin the police department. Only this time instead of working in Portland, Hanson is working the beat in Oakland, when the the city is ground-zero for the crack and AIDS epidemics. Hanson isn't so much having 'Nam flashbacks as he is discovering that existence in the ghetto is a Hobbesian nightmare and a war in its own right.
One could call "Green Sun" a police procedural, but that wouldn't do it justice. Even the best typical offerings from the genre have a paint-by-numbers feel to them (re: Joseph Wambaugh) while Kent Anderson's protagonist sees the ghetto and the police department and everything else through the jungle-jade prism he picked up in Vietnam. The book has an eerie, nigh-on supernatural feel to it. "Green Sun" is not so much a page-turner, as it is a book that sort of worms its way into your consciousness. As in "Sympathy" and "Night Dogs" what makes Hanson such a fascinating character isn't that he seeks death and danger as some kind of typical "adrenaline junky." It's more his way of trying to reconnect with his friends who died in Vietnam, and to challenge a force (maybe God? maybe Death?) whose existence most people aren't really aware of. Hanson is a guy who tries to call the universe's bluff on a daily basis, and part of the suspense (and agony) in reading about his doings is seeing when or if it will all catch up with him and come crashing down. Recommended, in any case.
His book "Green Sun" finds Hanson deciding to give up being a humanities professor in order to rejoin the police department. Only this time instead of working in Portland, Hanson is working the beat in Oakland, when the the city is ground-zero for the crack and AIDS epidemics. Hanson isn't so much having 'Nam flashbacks as he is discovering that existence in the ghetto is a Hobbesian nightmare and a war in its own right.
One could call "Green Sun" a police procedural, but that wouldn't do it justice. Even the best typical offerings from the genre have a paint-by-numbers feel to them (re: Joseph Wambaugh) while Kent Anderson's protagonist sees the ghetto and the police department and everything else through the jungle-jade prism he picked up in Vietnam. The book has an eerie, nigh-on supernatural feel to it. "Green Sun" is not so much a page-turner, as it is a book that sort of worms its way into your consciousness. As in "Sympathy" and "Night Dogs" what makes Hanson such a fascinating character isn't that he seeks death and danger as some kind of typical "adrenaline junky." It's more his way of trying to reconnect with his friends who died in Vietnam, and to challenge a force (maybe God? maybe Death?) whose existence most people aren't really aware of. Hanson is a guy who tries to call the universe's bluff on a daily basis, and part of the suspense (and agony) in reading about his doings is seeing when or if it will all catch up with him and come crashing down. Recommended, in any case.
February 5, 2018
Excellent.
October 20, 2018
Una inmersión total en la oscura realidad de Ockland, Estados Unidos, a finales del siglo XX. Protagonista con shock post traumatico tras la guerra de Vietnam metido a policía en los suburbios más duros de la ciudad, luchando contra sus fantasmas a base de alcohol y auto machaque físico. Con la clara noción de que está más allá de la muerte porque le da lo mismo que ésta lo alcance, tiene como meta pasar un periodo de 18 meses que le permita retirarse a un pueblo tranquilo donde ejercer su oficio sin la sobredosis de violencia que combate cada día. Por el camino, se enamora de una joven negra de vuelta de muchas cosas y pretende formar familia con ella y su vitalista hermano de 11 años.
Buen ritmo, dura en el fondo pero muy cuidada en la forma, la historia no deja de tener su punto de esperanza, aunque esté tan envuelto en negrura que es difícil de distinguir.
Buen ritmo, dura en el fondo pero muy cuidada en la forma, la historia no deja de tener su punto de esperanza, aunque esté tan envuelto en negrura que es difícil de distinguir.
March 11, 2018
One of those portentous, overwritten cop novels in which the tragic/haunted/tortured/deep/wounded/misunderstood existential hero tries to navigate a society where he doesn’t fit in, in part because he’s too good for it and too tragic etc. for people to understand. Has hallucinatory dream sequences to amp up the angst and a giant black rabbit that mysteriously appears for reasons that are unclear. A symbol of something or other. Has the familiar conflict between the lone hero and the Bureaucracy. Just once I’d like to read a novel/see a movie in which the Suits are actually right and it’s the cowboy cops - tragic/haunted etc - who screw things up basically because they’re self absorbed numbskulls.
April 18, 2018
This book isn't my usual fare, it was a recommended read from a trusted, bookish friend. This is perhaps the most exceptional thriller I've ever read. Though thriller, crime, and fiction do not suffice. The book is magical, whilst being one of the most authentic tales ever put to paper. The author is almost lyrical in his writing, a poet in his heart. The story is compelling, the characters are real and involving, and you can't see what is coming around the next corner. This book tackles race, government, corruption, and classism. This book has a beating heart. This is my 20th book of the year, and it is among one of the best yet, not just for the year, but in a lifetime of reading. This book is as close to perfect as a story gets.
November 7, 2018
Me ha gustado,me ha gustado mucho. Que nadie espere el thriller convencional con policías, detectives,asesinos en serie...ni nada parecido. Un veterano del Vietnam que patrulla en solitario en la ciudad de Oakland, bicho raro entre sus propios compañeros por su manera de aplicar la ley, solitario, con el tequila como compañero al acostarse al amanecer después de patrullar ... novela dura,espesa, perturbadora...me ha encantado como escribe Kent Anderson, pero no creo que sea plato para todos los gustos. Diferente, bien por estas cosas que se leen de vez en cuando.
May 20, 2018
For all the talk of Kent Anderson as the author of the "best police novel of all time" (Night Dogs) and "the most authentic Vietnam novel written by someone who was there" (Sympathy for the Devil), both of which are admittedly phenomenal—when you read his entire catalog in sequence, including the third piece of the "Hanson" trilogy (Green Sun), you realize he's up to something else entirely. Something darker, stranger, and more personal. The accolades may as well be incidental, but that doesn't make them inaccurate.
Green Sun carries on about 10 years after Night Dogs, longstanding protagonist and author-surrogate Hanson serving as a police officer for the second time after a stint as an English professor, now relocated from Portland to Oakland; an experienced cop starting over with a new job in a new town. Dark hijinks ensue.
Anderson is a poet of the streets, haunted by war, possessed of burning intellect and an eye for perfect details. Despite the marketing these aren't genre exercises. The books go so much further than that, painting an apocalyptic vision of a damaged and destructive (and self-destructive) force (Hanson) roaming the earth and occasionally trying to do the right thing, but mostly just trying to scrape by without killing anyone (or anyone he shouldn't). Beneath the surface of the prose, there's an unhinged core that radiates from every page. In a scene from Night Dogs, Hanson stops by a college party in his off-duty capacity. Shortly after arriving, he quietly sips a beer and considers killing everyone in the room—social anxiety and alienation bubbling into toxicity, a reflection of the horror he saw overseas—before banishing the thought and seeking out the girl he came to see. Violence is always present, or its shadow, and death is never too far behind. In Green Sun, Hanson's hallucinations seem to become more literal as he occasionally looks up to see Death watching him, a random passerby in a leather jacket, maybe the black rabbit bouncing through the trash-littered streets of 1983 Oakland, or just a simmering presence somewhere in the background.
Reading Anderson, I get echoes of Hubert Selby, Jr. and Iceberg Slim, writers who probably lived the lives they write about, who saw things no one should, and who don't flinch in the retelling. Anderson rarely focuses on plot; rather, he gives us a string of daily vignettes, repetition reflecting the beat of the beat cop, themes resurfacing and unfurling across a few hundred pages. Anderson focuses on the details without lingering, letting us breathe in the landscape as we settle into Hanson's bones and start to see the world as he does, where the streets of Portland, OR, and Oakland, CA, are drug-addled and blasted, haunted by the living dead (junkies), roaming beasts (bikers, gangsters, schizoids), and an occupying force stretched too thin (police). That tension often triggers flashbacks to the actual war, and more often than not it makes Hanson (and the reader at home, whew) reach for a stiff drink.
Green Sun departs from its predecessors slightly. It feels slightly hopeful. Escape may be possible after all, peace more than a fleeting dream. We see Hanson against a backdrop of falling snow more than once, and it seems to calm him—and us with it, as those of us following from the start have been to the brink and back by now. Hanson's personal apocalypse feels somewhat tempered by age—he's 38 now, rather than the fire-eyed kid from Sympathy for the Devil or the mid-20s maniac from Night Dogs—and that need for calm and quiet, for something good, rubs away some of his sharper edges. That said, Green Sun lacks some of the razor's edge urgency that made Night Dogs such a harrowing experience, though it's almost as affecting. It's a book about an aging cop, about police work, communities and their citizens, crime, low-living, cycles of violence, life and death.
To anyone approaching Anderson's work for the first time, if the nihilistic darkness of the earlier books sounds appealing, I would read them in order (recognizing that Night Dogs is both his darkest and sharpest achievement). Otherwise, the later books hardly spoil the earlier ones, so just start where it's convenient. I read all three across a span of five months, and Green Sun only felt slightly diminished by the long shadow of its predecessors, which are shockingly good, and both in my growing list of personal favorites. It's an excellent book on its own that I wouldn't hesitate to recommend.
Green Sun carries on about 10 years after Night Dogs, longstanding protagonist and author-surrogate Hanson serving as a police officer for the second time after a stint as an English professor, now relocated from Portland to Oakland; an experienced cop starting over with a new job in a new town. Dark hijinks ensue.
Anderson is a poet of the streets, haunted by war, possessed of burning intellect and an eye for perfect details. Despite the marketing these aren't genre exercises. The books go so much further than that, painting an apocalyptic vision of a damaged and destructive (and self-destructive) force (Hanson) roaming the earth and occasionally trying to do the right thing, but mostly just trying to scrape by without killing anyone (or anyone he shouldn't). Beneath the surface of the prose, there's an unhinged core that radiates from every page. In a scene from Night Dogs, Hanson stops by a college party in his off-duty capacity. Shortly after arriving, he quietly sips a beer and considers killing everyone in the room—social anxiety and alienation bubbling into toxicity, a reflection of the horror he saw overseas—before banishing the thought and seeking out the girl he came to see. Violence is always present, or its shadow, and death is never too far behind. In Green Sun, Hanson's hallucinations seem to become more literal as he occasionally looks up to see Death watching him, a random passerby in a leather jacket, maybe the black rabbit bouncing through the trash-littered streets of 1983 Oakland, or just a simmering presence somewhere in the background.
Reading Anderson, I get echoes of Hubert Selby, Jr. and Iceberg Slim, writers who probably lived the lives they write about, who saw things no one should, and who don't flinch in the retelling. Anderson rarely focuses on plot; rather, he gives us a string of daily vignettes, repetition reflecting the beat of the beat cop, themes resurfacing and unfurling across a few hundred pages. Anderson focuses on the details without lingering, letting us breathe in the landscape as we settle into Hanson's bones and start to see the world as he does, where the streets of Portland, OR, and Oakland, CA, are drug-addled and blasted, haunted by the living dead (junkies), roaming beasts (bikers, gangsters, schizoids), and an occupying force stretched too thin (police). That tension often triggers flashbacks to the actual war, and more often than not it makes Hanson (and the reader at home, whew) reach for a stiff drink.
Green Sun departs from its predecessors slightly. It feels slightly hopeful. Escape may be possible after all, peace more than a fleeting dream. We see Hanson against a backdrop of falling snow more than once, and it seems to calm him—and us with it, as those of us following from the start have been to the brink and back by now. Hanson's personal apocalypse feels somewhat tempered by age—he's 38 now, rather than the fire-eyed kid from Sympathy for the Devil or the mid-20s maniac from Night Dogs—and that need for calm and quiet, for something good, rubs away some of his sharper edges. That said, Green Sun lacks some of the razor's edge urgency that made Night Dogs such a harrowing experience, though it's almost as affecting. It's a book about an aging cop, about police work, communities and their citizens, crime, low-living, cycles of violence, life and death.
To anyone approaching Anderson's work for the first time, if the nihilistic darkness of the earlier books sounds appealing, I would read them in order (recognizing that Night Dogs is both his darkest and sharpest achievement). Otherwise, the later books hardly spoil the earlier ones, so just start where it's convenient. I read all three across a span of five months, and Green Sun only felt slightly diminished by the long shadow of its predecessors, which are shockingly good, and both in my growing list of personal favorites. It's an excellent book on its own that I wouldn't hesitate to recommend.
June 10, 2018
I had not read Kent Anderson -- this one won me over. I love the character Hanson -- he holds himself steady and although in a daily effort to find his true core he does a great job sticking to what is right and good. Mr Anderson (to my knowledge) has only written three Hanson's and this book set me of to find the others and get caught up with all the Hanson available! I've read Night Dogs - a great police novel whci introduces Hanson and Sympathy for the Devil sits on my night stand! Strongly recommended if you like police novels.
January 26, 2025
An extremely gritty police procedural set in Oakland in the 1980s. Not ordinarily my thing, but the characters on both sides of the law are extremely well drawn by an author with firsthand experience of combat and law enforcement plus a strong literary background.
Very rare combination!
It was worth reading to understand how tough it is for cops on the beat to do the right thing in a job that prizes arrest statistics over dispute resolution and community policing. The author has won many awards, but I was previously unaware of his work.
Very rare combination!
It was worth reading to understand how tough it is for cops on the beat to do the right thing in a job that prizes arrest statistics over dispute resolution and community policing. The author has won many awards, but I was previously unaware of his work.
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