This is Orwell’s account of his time fighting in the Spanish Civil War. It’s mostly fun to read – I got a good sense of the life of a (motley) soldier. As they say, it’s long stretches of uncomfortable boredom punctuated by brief bursts of terror. Orwell gives us a mix of petty complaints and gossip, analysis of battle tactics, conspiracy theories (some true), politics and much more. He writes with increasing weariness and disillusionment about the political infighting on the anti-fascist side. You can tell it’s not going to end well, even without taking into account the fact that we actually know it didn’t end well.
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