The Chinese Bandit
4/5
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About this ebook
That summer they hanged a fat man at the Western gate as a warning and example to all.
Kao was a traitor, a thief, a pimp, a black marketeer—and Jake Dodds’s partner. So what if he traded stolen military supplies with the Japanese, Jake wants to know. He never cheated me. But 1947 Peking is a savage, cutthroat city, and the United States Marine Corps sergeant is too busy saving his own skin to put up a fight over Kao’s fate.
Jake served his country with honor in World War II, but when he knocks an American brigadier general through a barroom window, no amount of battlefield scars or combat medals will save him from prison. So he sets out across the Gobi Desert with a caravan of Kao’s illicit goods—and plunges into a world of violence and treachery that will take every ounce of his strength and intelligence to survive. Pursued by Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalist Army and a bandit chieftain named Tiger’s Assistant Demon, Jake disappears into the mountains—but the chaos of postwar China is inescapable, and “peace” has never been a part of this two-fisted adventurer’s vocabulary.
Gripping and rich with cinematic detail, The Chinese Bandit will please history buffs and thriller fans alike and “keep readers turning pages through the night” (Los Angeles Times).
The Chinese Bandit is the 1st book in the Far East Trilogy, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.
Stephen Becker
Stephen Becker (1927–1999) was an American author, translator, and teacher whose published works include eleven novels and the English translations of Elie Wiesel’s The Town Behind the Wall and André Malraux’s The Conquerors. He was born in Mount Vernon, New York, and after serving in World War II, he graduated from Harvard University and studied in Peking and Paris, where he was friends with the novelist Richard Wright and learned French in part by reading detective novels. The recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, Becker taught at numerous schools throughout the United States, including the University of Iowa, Bennington College, and the University of Central Florida in Orlando. His best-known works include A Covenant with Death (1965), which was adapted into a Warner Brothers film starring Gene Hackman and George Maharis; When the War Is Over (1969), a Civil War novel based on the true story of a teenage Confederate soldier executed more than a month after Lee’s surrender; and the Far East trilogy of literary adventure novels: The Chinese Bandit (1975), The Last Mandarin (1979), and The Blue-Eyed Shan (1982).
Read more from Stephen Becker
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Related to The Chinese Bandit
Titles in the series (4)
The Last Mandarin Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Chinese Bandit Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Far East Trilogy: The Chinese Bandit, The Last Mandarin, and The Blue-Eyed Shan Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Blue-Eyed Shan Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
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Reviews for The Chinese Bandit
12 ratings1 review
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Hsüü what a book!Stephen Becker was only 20 when he landed in Peking 1947 as an instructor at Yenching University, but 20 meant a lot more back then. At 20 Mr. Becker had already served as a Marine in WW2 and graduated from Harvard. Although The Far East Trilogy, of which "The Chinese Bandit" is the opening, was not published till much later, it is clear that the notes and ideas came from his experiences in the rough and tumble period immediately before the communist takeover of China in 1949. 1947 was a fantastic year in China and, while from easily accessible online biographies it is not apparent that Mr. Becker traveled to Western China, the detail and color in these books suggests that he surely did.Jake Dodds is a sergeant in the US Marines, a smart and observant man who ascribes to the military truism that sergeants are best. He also, in the tradition of sergeants in fiction, is an opportunist, and he is in business with a Chinese fellow called Kao buying and selling items of great usefulness in a modernizing country – wire, nails, toolsets and other practical items – without worrying very much about their provenance. Kao is a bit more than he seems, though, and when Jake deserts the Marines after a colorful brothel fight lands a general on a sewage barge, Kao arranges for Jack to join a camel caravan heading west to new adventures.This is the kind of adventure I have always adored and I can't tell you how thrilling it is to rediscover this series. Jake is the kind of man Mr. Becker admired. Masculine, sexual, honorable, practical. Ironically aware of his surroundings and the peculiar world we human beings make. Jake is definitely not a man who would be written today and this book, evoking as it does the authentic sights and smells of a world lost a century ago, could not be written today.It occurred to me as I was reading that our younger readers nurtured on sanitary sex, good plumbing, and daily showers, will be left gasping by these books. That is no reason not to urge them to read them. Perhaps one in 10,000 will find Mr. Becker's books irresistible and some interesting changes in world perspective will emerge. The heavens know we need more leaders with worldly perspectives and more writers like Mr. Becker.I received a review copy of "The Chinese Bandit" by Stephen Becker (Open Road Integrated Media) through NetGalley.com.