Customer Reviews

The Searchers

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This is yet another in the long line of great tales about the American west. Like the best of them, it is historically accurate, richly detailed, and intensely readable.

The tale begins, as so many of them do, with a violent encounter between the savage Comanche Indians and an outnumbered plains family in West Texas. The entire family is killed, except for the youngest daughter, who is kidnapped. The plot has to do with the two men who decide they are going to get her back. One, the brother of the murdered man, is motivated by a white-hot hatred for these Comanches, and the other, the family's 17 year-old stepchild, is motivated by his love for his ten-year old captured sister. It is a journey which takes them them through the trackless wastes of Texas, Oklahoma and New Mexico, and lasts for six years.

Like so many great novels, the beauty of this one is in the small things. Mart, for example, the stepchild, continues his relentless search because of a memory he has of the child. On the day she was lost, she came to him and asked him to help her with a calendar she was trying to create. He gruffly shooed her away. This memory torments him and compels him to continue his quest. The brother-in-law, Amos, we learn, also had a long-standing and unspoken love for his brother's wife. So this quest, this almost unendurable quest, is begun on the most simple, honest, human terms.

The novel is also about the women who populated this wilderness. For most it is a life of daily drudgery, but rewarded with the realization that they have truly created something out of nothing. Life for a young woman, with a young woman's desires and needs, is painted artistically as well.

Le May displays a tremendous knowledge of Indian culture, specifically the Comanches, that is absolutely fascinating. We learn that they do not leave their dead on the battlefield. We learn about their burial customs, and what they think is important in the afterlife. They are magnificent horsemen, circling and interweaving nearer and nearer their enemy, giving them only the most meager and difficult of shots, and always allowing themselves a chance for a quick retreat. I was particularly interested to learn that their names can sometimes change over the course of a lifetime, and that they are not always as easily translatable as they would appear to be in TV westerns. Mart, who eventually learns the Comanche language, comments that a Comanche name known in the white world as "Big Red Food," would probably be more aptly translated as "Raw Meat."

Also interesting is the bit of history we learn about West Texas. Apparently, before the Civil War, the Texas Rangers had mostly driven out the Comanche tribes. But after the war the Rangers were disbanded, the federal government did not keep its promise to police the area, and the natives gradually returned . . . with deadly results.

But this is only the icing on the cake. The true joy of this novel is its sheer narrative force, and the compelling, descriptive nature of Le May's prose. Mart stands in the homestead kitchen after months on the prairie and is concerned that he smells bad. The author points out that his smell is really only juniper smoke, leather, and prairie wind, but that he couldn't have known that. A rider is shot, "his body crumpled as it hit, and rolled over once, as shot game rolls, before it lay still." Very descriptive, very observant, and only two small examples of the kind of thing to be found on practically every page.

And last but certainly not least are the thematic implications stemming from the way the story ends. I am not going to give away anything, but will simply say that Amos, motivated by hate, comes to the end in a far different way than Mart, who is motivated by love. The last paragraph of this novel is splendidly powerful, and very rewarding.

It is the kind of novel that transcends the genre. Like Lonesome Dove, Mountain Man, Pemmican, or The Virginian, to name only a few, it is more than just a great western, it is a great novel.

Much has been said about the movie "The Searchers" by John Ford, and more recently "The Missing" staring Tommy Lee Jones, but few seem to recall that both movies are based on the novel by Alan LeMay, which paints a truly mesmerizing portrait of Texas frontier life and is full of fascinating facts along with what I would call shared history- anecdotal episodes to which innumerable descendants of these frontier families can personally relate. This nearly forgotten gem should become a cherished member of everyone's bookshelf who reveres the original movie starring John Wayne and Natalie Wood, though it already brings up to a thousand dollars and more among the lst edition collectors subculture. For those who hated the movie, LeMays' novel provides a much more even-handed account of the White/Indian conflict of that period. For instance Chief Scar, far from the stereotypical embodiment of savage evil, is in the novel an innovative general who consistently outwits his White conterparts, and his eventual demise provides a uniquely ironic insight into the Nataive American tragedy. Ford's movie, with all its power and grandeur, deals at times in buffoonery and caricature (most notably the episode with Pauly's Indian wife), and also departs significantly- no doubt due to the exigencies of John Wayne's star power- from the book's ending. Indeed, the novel's bittersweet ending in and of itself serves as a fitting metaphor of the frontier experience. LeMay's novel truly captures the vastness and loneliness of the Texas plains as well as the often bitter price paid by those with the incredible courage to settle there. Whether you like western novels or not, The Searchers is a must read and remains, in my opinion, one of the greatest novels of the American experience.

These people had a kind of courage that may be the finest gift of man: the courage of those who simply keep on, and on, doing the next thing ... -Alan Le May (on the Texicans)

It's muy chic in these days of political correctness to bemoan our ancestors' horrible misguided behavior in regards to the American Indians. In Leftist hindsight, the Indians have been converted into pastoral New Age environmentalists, facing off against a militaristic, technological behemoth. The novel The Searchers, basis for the great John Ford/John Wayne movie (The Searchers--1956), offers a necessary antidote to such fuzzy headed platitudinous twaddle.

The story begins in 1868 Texas; neglected by the military during the Civil War and now subject to the naive Quaker administration of Indian affairs, white settlements are being rolled back by persistent murderous Comanche raids. Living at the very edge of civilization are Henry and Martha Edwards and their children, Lucy, Debbie, Ben and Hunter. The couple are assisted by the young man , Martin Pauley, who they virtually adopted when Comanches slaughtered his family, and by Henry's brother Amos, a quiet, taciturn man who seems to be irresistibly drawn back to the ranch time and again. But then one day Marty and Amos are lured away from the ranch when a Comanche party steals a herd of cattle. They pursue them for quite a distance before realizing that they have been tricked. By the time they arrive back at the Edwards ranch, it is in ruins, the parents and the boys are dead and scalped and the girls are missing. As every movie viewer knows, what ensues is a years long quest by Martin and Amos (Ethan in the movie) as they search for the girls.

Martin is driven by a memory of how he ignored Debbie on her last day of life, Amos appears to be driven by darker demons. Eventually, Martin has an epiphany:

Amos, Mart realized, no longer believed they would recover Lucy alive--and wasn't thinking of Debbie at all. Seeing Amos' face as it was tonight, Mart remembered it as it was that worst time of the world, when Martha lay in the box they had made for her. Her face looked young and serene, and her crossed hands were at rest. They were worn hands, betraying Martha's age as her face did not, with little random scars on them. Martha was always hurting her hands. Mart thought, "She wore them out, she hurt them, working for us."

As he thought that, the key to Amos' life suddenly became plain. All his uncertainties, his deadlocks with himself, his labors without pay, his perpetual gravitation back to his brother's ranch--they all fell into line. As he saw what had shaped and twisted Amos' life, Mart felt shaken up; he had lived with Amos most of his life without ever suspecting the truth. But neither had Henry suspected it--and Martha least of all.

Amos was--had always been--in love with his brother's wife.

At first they are accompanied by Lucy's fiancé, but when he thinks that he has spied Lucy dancing around a fire in the Comanche camp, Amos brutally explains that what he's actually seen is a young buck wearing her scalp. The young man, driven mad, attacks the camp and is killed. From there on, Amos and Martin have only each other and Martin increasingly realizes that they do not share the same obsessions:

Mart had noticed that Amos always spoke of catching up to "them"--never of finding "her." And the cold, banked fires behind Amos' eyes were manifestly the lights of hatred, not of concern for a lost girl. He wondered uneasily if there might not be a peculiar danger in this. He believed now that Amos, in certain moods, would ride past the child and let her be lost to them if he saw a chance to kill Comanches.

In the coming years they survive Indian attacks, blizzards, comic misadventures, robbery attempts and the like as their search narrows in on Scar, a chief of the Wolf Clan. Along the way, Amos develops a grudging respect for Martin (even making him his heir) and the two become the stuff of legend, known to the Indians as "Bull Shoulders" (Amos) and "The Other" (Marty).

This is historical fiction in the grand manor, combining an exciting story and extensive historical background to create the kind of mythos that is central to a nation's understanding of itself. What emerges is a more balanced sense of how precarious a situation these early white homesteaders faced as they pushed into Indian territory and, while not justifying racial hatred, it makes the animus between the races more understandable. This is a great American story, with an obvious debt to Moby Dick (Amos/Ahab, Marty/Ishmael, Scar/Moby); the movie will always preserve our memory of the tale, but it deserves to be read too.

GRADE: A+

Wow, I would never have believed how good this was. I remember being disappointed when the book arrived, because I had assumed such a big story would of course be a BIG book. I usually won't touch a book under 400 pages, the bigger the better. I was wrong in this case, what an awesome story -- five long years searching for little Debbie.

The characters were wonderful, many tragic moments where you want to just cry, and other moments along the way to make you laugh and smile. As another reviewer noted A++ indeed. Highly recommended.

I always enjoy finding a book that is better than the movie. The movie is great, the book is better. History, geography, culture and a compelling story that grips all the emotions. This book will appeal to readers of all ages. It's hard for me to be objective because I love this book. I rank it in my top 5 with the Hobbit and the Lord of the rings trilogy.

I am suprised that this book is out of print. I am not usually a western novel reader but I read the book in High School and recently read it again, getting more out of it. Most readers have seen the Movie with John Wayne (Which by the way will go down as one of his best.) The book deals with the results of an indian raid on the Texas frontier, post Civil War. Mr. Lemay caught the best and the worst of living on the edge of civilization. The danger and the sadness along with the binds of family and community. Amos Edwards and Martin Pauly are driven for years to track and rescue the survivor of the indian raid no matter what. It is a character study of relentless dedication to a goal. In Amos's case driven by hate and in Martins case driven by love and family. The best of the western mystique and the worst.

I was dubious about the novel after loving the film for so long. But was impressed with how closely Ford's classic followed LeMay's story. It also adds ALOT of backstory that fills in many lingering questions for devotees of the film. LeMay was apparently one of the few novelists who parlayed his talents into screenwriting as well, making a successful career in Hollywood and literature. This is NOT a lame pulp Western. It's a well researched novel that touches on history, race, love, loyalty...and hell it's just a bloody great adventure! If you love the film, then read the book.

Let me start by saying that I love the movie "The Searchers". That said, the book is much better. The characters are much more believable, especially Charlie MacCorry. The movie suffers from John Ford's lapse in judgement, forcing Ken Curtis to play Charlie as a clown. The ending of the book is also much more realistic from a human standpoint as Marty and Amos come to the end of their long quest.

Providing even more excitement than the motion picture, Le May creates characters that provide insight into the culture and mindset of American settlers on the frontier. Those readers who look beyond the cowboys vs. indians action, which is first rate, will find more explanation of the motivations of the characters than the movie could provide. It does not suffer from the political correctness that compelled the screenwriters to change Amos Edwards' name to Ethan Edwards, but rather is a true reflection of the best and worst among America's frontier culture.

I wanted to read the book on which the great John Ford movie was made. As expected, the book was so much better than that Academy-Award winning film. An author can say so much more than a director can with his camera and dialogue.

The story begins with a peaceful family scene on the western fringe of the Comanche movement area of West Texas after the Civil War. The family is slaughtered by the Comanches, all but the youngest daughter who disappears, apparently taken by the Comanches. The two men who return to the burning remains, the uncle and the adopted brother, join a party of neighbors who attempt to catch the Indians before they get too far. When the trail leads on and on, the less dedicated ones drop off leaving only Amos, the uncle, and Matt, the seventeen year-old adopted brother. The story becomes one of yearly tracking with breaks only long enough to come home to a neighbor's home for rest and provisions. As the story unfolds, the life of the Comanche Indians unfolds too. One unforgettable scene is when Matt is offered his choice of the young and beautiful maidens of a tribe by an old Comanche chief. He marvels at their beauty as their hands clutch at their breasts as they stand before him, completely naked, in fear of the two white men. Another unforgettable scene is when the two searchers are caught on the prairie in the face of a killer blizzard and survive only because they are able to find a hollow in the prairie for shelter. It takes several days for the fierce storm to subside. It is so cold it freezes the feet off their mule. Matt eventually shows compassion to a young Indian woman who is the slave of a cruel inn-keeper and winds up as a "squaw man. He tries to run her off without success until she is taken in by another Indian. He later learns she died in an Indian camp and grieves over the fact because she never really had a chance at a long life.

Toward the end of the long (several years) quest, the girl is located in the Comanche camp and she comes to the searchers to plead that they leave her there. It is only by showing her that the man whose tepee she sleeps in also murdered Matt's parents, shown by the braided hair lock on his war spear and the belt buckle taken from Matt's murdered father which he wears around his neck does she realize the fierceness of her captor. This young woman's life is about to be changed again, the life she has known for several years with the Comanches. The battle scene before the Comanche camp is so compelling that I can almost smell the gun smoke.

There are several sub-stories that add to the richness of this great novel. Amos, an ex-Texas Ranger, is sought by the authorities in Austin for questioning concerning a shoot-out Amos has with some armed bandits. Amos' story is really the center of this novel. The ex-Confederate has nothing to live for except to kill Comanches and get his niece back. He becomes so wrapped up in this goal that he becomes an outcast to society, not willing to give in to the demands of the civilizing influences that are becoming more apparent in west Texas. The end of the story is not the way the movie ended and I'm glad. I wish Ford had seen fit to film the book as written. I think it would have been even greater.