Homage to Catalonia by George Orwell

I recently read a biography of George Orwell and noted to myself that I had never read

Homage to Catalonia , which was one of his earlier successes. Orwell went to Spain to report on the Civil War , he had already experienced WWI intimately, and so it wasn't surprising that he joined the fight against the Fascists. Herein he describes the war and Orwell’s experiences are verite, rèal - despondent , dreary and stinky.

Though I enjoy how he wrote and I embrace many of his philosophies - emotionally

and physically . However the graphic nature of his writing puts me too in his mindset and war. It is a space I don't need to spend significant time . I don't need a book to be yippee skip-pee - just not in realistic modern war.

"All the war-propaganda, all the screaming and lies and hatred, comes invariably from people who are not fighting."

"I have the most evil memories of Spain, but I have very few bad memories of Spaniards."

"I believe that on such an issue as this no one is or can be completely truthful. It is difficult to be certain about anything except what you have seen with your own eyes, and consciously or unconsciously everyone writes as a partisan"

"If you had asked me why I had joined the militia I should have answered: 'To fight against Fascism,' and if you had asked me what I was fighting for, I should have answered: 'Common decency."

"all sleeping the deep, deep sleep of England, from which I sometimes fear that we shall never wake till we are jerked out of it by the roar of bombs."

            This last quote, his prescient quote, regarding World War II.

I       I  went back and finished the book after all- it has its good moments.