Homage to Catalonia is George Orwell’s account of the Spanish Civil War. Originally signing up to cover the war as a reporter, Orwell almost immediately enlisted to fight against fascist forces in Spain, and this book recounts his experiences about six months after he fled the country.
You know, I didn’t realize that Orwell was a prolific nonfiction writer until I read The Art of the Memoir by Mary Karr. When you hear the name “Orwell,” you immediately think of 1984 (which is also the year Nightmare on Elm Street came out), just as when you hear the name “Hatfield” you immediately think “cool guy.” It’s weird to think of him outside of his cultural image built around his seminal work, which in recent memory has been used by the right-wing to lambast communism and leftist ideals.
I haven’t read 1984, so I can’t really speak to that myself (though I am skeptical about those claims), but I can say that Orwell wasn’t a right-wing guy, and he fought alongside socialists in Spain and spoke highly of anarchists. While he wasn’t opposed to communism, it seems, he and the other parties fighting against Franco’s fascist forces were betrayed by Soviet-backed communist forces to form an alliance with the liberal government; many militia members, including Orwell’s comrades (and nearly himself), were thrown into jail or killed. This is according to his account, which is prefaced as solely his own, and warns against the frantic lies and propaganda of most parties writing about the war from abroad. I wonder where he got the idea to write about propaganda in his fiction…
Because this is just his on-the-ground account, written shortly after he left Spain but before the war concluded, this is not a comprehensive history of the events that transpired, and when he tries to explain the politics and conflicts happening, it’s quite confusing (mostly because everybody back then was obsessed with acronyms). This is definitely not the account to read for a thorough history of the conflict, but I’m sure it’s an excellent supplement.
Where this account shines is in its details and descriptions of the events that happened to Orwell personally. Did you know he was shot through the neck and lived? What the hell. Maybe if I start behaving like a snarky British man, I too could take an otherwise fatal bullet when a similar civil war erupts in America. His witty, insightful accounts are ripe with clever details about the men he fought alongside, the sordid conditions, and the rampant paranoia once left-leaning forces collapse.
Overall, his was an excellent memoir about an idealistic man who went to the forefront of the fight against fascism and became greatly disillusioned about the fight itself, how it was used exploitatively by malicious opportunists, and how he escaped with a deep resentment of the world and profound respect for the Spaniards who fought but failed to prevent their country’s slide into brutal authoritarianism.
Not to be “that guy,” but isn’t it crazy that popular authors used to do crazy stuff like this? When is Sally Rooney going to go fight North Korean soldiers outside of Kyiv? Or firebomb the village that Melania Trump crawled out of?
4/5