The Unforgiven (1957) (Book)

Written by Alan LeMay (who’s most notable for writing The Searchers), The Unforgiven was also adapted into a film with Burt Lancaster (not to be confused with Clint’s similarly titled film). Unfortunately it’s been many years since I’ve seen the film, so I cannot manage any meaningful comparison.

This review is necessarily slight short, since I read the book then forgot to write a review, and in the meantime have forgotten many of the details. It concerns a family, their adopted daughter—who may or may not be a Kiowa Indian—a neighbouring family who hate Indians passionately and their response to rumours of the daughter’s ancestry, and finally the Kiowa’s attempts to recover what they believe is their lost child.

The book is well paced and generally enjoyable to read. It probably doesn’t quite count as great literature—it’s designed too much as an “action” book—but I would say it’s well written. It largely ties in with what I know about the period and it certainly seems as though the author knows his history, although I suspect I’m not the best person to judge this (I’ve only really read one historical book about region, the Commanches and their allies such as the Kiowa: “Empire of the Summer Moon”…). The only bit which didn’t ring true was the idea that a sufficiently fortified homestead would largely be left alone by the Indians, although I should reiterate that I can’t really judge this.

I think the book is currently out of print in the UK, although only recently, so it’s reasonably readily available.