Firstly, Mr Becker is a master of a pen, a gifted storyteller. Few are capable to paint his literary worlds with such finery and nyances, taking you immediately "there" to see, touch, smell and wonder with him and his characters. His worlds are colourful, written with journalistic, clear view - he is portraying the Eastern countries (mostly China, but Mongolia and Burma amongst others, too) as he sees them, with all layers of historical richness, tumultous times and often cruel fates of the individual under the wheel of the time. He is not for a reader faint of heart - he is no intentional writer of the horrors, but he simply reports them without going easy on his audience. And, in my opinion, he is very right to do that, as we need to see and to remember.
He might be less right with his attitude on women - you see, this is a very man's literature, full of young, virile American men interested in all the females can offer concerning sex. And his heroes have much sex. While this is not an erotic literature, the author's male characters are very, very much interested in sex and pleasure - read: their pleasure. Females need to be VERY interesting to get into these men's hearts, too - otherwise, they are only forgettable chapters serving their physical needs (also - why are they so sure that the prostitutes love their job?). And that does not sit well with me, because as much I grudgingly admire the male characters's get-go attitude and their invincible youngness, I am also not interested in this kind of men, living for the day without any higher calling and purpose.
Yet, still - the author's journalistic eye makes up for this less than pleasant features with his precise storytelling. And for this mastery and for the descriptive richness I will remember these novels fondly. Truly, what an informed, capable writer!

I am a huge Stephen Becker fan and I remember reading these books decades ago. I am pretty sure that their sheer stunning splendor of the writing, in particular that of "The Last Mandarin", caused me to abandon any hope of being a novelist, while at the same time fanning my burning desire to see the Far East, which I have done.

https://www.amazon.com/review/R2I33RNXHU459K/ref=cm_cr_rdp_perm
https://www.amazon.com/review/RZ0RKLL30EUGO/ref=cm_cr_rdp_perm

I received a review copy of "The Far East Trilogy" by Stephen Becker (Open Road Integrated Media) through NetGalley.com. The three books were originally published in 1975, 1979 and 1982.