Book log 2020 #3 - The Searchers by Alan LeMay

I never really knew the movie was based on a novel until I found it in a charity shop. It’s an intriguing mix, characterisation with a sort of Old West travelogue feel, and yet it works. The timescale varies in different sections of the book, being set over periods of hours in some chapters, then skipping through months in others, but all in a way that works in a kind of Tolkien-ish way. Which is to say, it conveys both intimate personal story and epic sweep.

Though written a couple of years before the film, the description of Amos Edwards –Ethan in the movie – is so clearly John Wayne that it does seem to have been written with the intent of being a movie sale, though it’s a little different how much younger the character played by Jeffrey Hunter is here. The ending’s a little different too, but overall feels like a classic Western.

There are a few places where the choice of words – especially in dialogue – is confusing, and makes me wonder whether it’s genuine Old West slang or made-up-in-the-1950s Frontier Gibberish, but it’s not too intrusive either way, and the two main characters feel real. So,yeah, worth the read.

The copy I’ve got has about the first sixty pages or so taken up by a monograph about ‘The Searchers And John Wayne’, and a Making Of memoir of filming it by Harry Carey Jr, so that’s a bonus.

I'm also catching up on a backlog of Fortean Times issues...