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George Orwell fought in the Spanish Civil War,as part of the militia of a party,the P.O.U.M.

Ironically,the party was later declared illegal and after all his struggles on its behalf,Orwell had to flee Spain eventually,to avoid being imprisoned.

While Orwell,a foreigner,was taking such risks with his life in the war,a lot of people and places in Spain remained unaffected.As to why he was fighting in the war,Orwell gives his reason as "common decency."

The best part of the book describes the conditions of trench warfare on the Aragon front.Conditions resembled those of World War I.The trenches had plenty of filth and rats.

It was very cold and the soldiers were lousy,with the lice rapidly mutilplying.Then, there was the lack of sleep.

The weapons were antiquated and there was very little ammunition.Boys of fifteen were being used as soldiers.

Later,Orwell would go to other areas and watch street fighting and began to think of it as a futile period.Finally,he was shot through the neck.

He temporarily lost his voice,thought he was going to die,but miraculously survived and even recovered the use of his voice.The bullet injury got him discharged from the militia as he was declared "useless."

But even when he finally got out of Spain,he found his personal freedom boring and kept wondering if it wouldn't have been more interesting to be imprisoned in a Spanish jail !

When Orwell finally finished writing Homage to Catolonia,his publisher refused to publish it.He found another publisher but it hardly made an impact,selling just 900 copies.

I found it a mixed bag,Orwell's personal war experiences are interesting and large parts of the book focusing on the politics of Spain are fairly boring.

Despite all the trouble he endured,Orwell seems only mildly disillusioned by the war.As wounded men go back and fresh men take their place,he still looks at war as something glorious.

I admire Orwell as an author,but I don't admire him for taking part in this distant war and trying his level best to get himself killed.