Related reading support

[Robert]

I recently read the novel Night Soldiers by Allan Furst, which I really liked. As I read it, I felt that I wanted more history of the decade of the '30's in general as a background for understanding the Spanish Civil War, which provided the setting for much of Night Soldiers. I read the book, The Dark Valley: A Panorama of the Thirties by Piers Brandon. This was a history of the decade and the impact of the global depression in giving rise to the political climate of that time. I was able to skip around the book to concentrate on what was most relevant to the novel I was reading, but ended up reading the entire history. It was excellent, and I would recommend it as a historical background to getting the most out of reading Homage to Catalonia.

[Ricki]

That sounds really good, Robert. Perhaps you'll be able to add some interesting historical points when we start discussing the Orwell - that would be good! (mind you, I know you've got a very busy life)

[toria (vikz writes)]

Thanks for the recommendation . I'm really interested in that period of history. So, this should be a good read. I am also looking forward to reading Homage to Catalonia. This must be a really good book by the way. Someone took it out of our local library a year ago and it hasn't been seen since :)

[Sherry, Doyenne]

Ricki, this is a different Robert than the one I think you're thinking of. This Robert is a neighbor of mine. One of the very first people I've ever persuaded to join CR!

[Ricki]

Ah, that's interesting.I'll have to start paying attention to photos. Poor you Robert, my response probably made no sense at all to you - sorry.

[Rosana]

Robert, thanks for the recommendation and welcome to Constant Reader. I just started on Homage to Catalonia and I am finding it fascinating.

Sherry, congratulations to you too for bringing others to CR. I have told about CR to so many people, but they obviously don’t trust me, because no one ever joins us. I have now a friend in GR that is also a friend in real life. Maybe, just maybe, she will show up here.

[Carol]

Robert wrote: "I recently read the novel Night Soldiers by Allan Furst, which I really liked. As I read it, I felt that I wanted more history of the decade of the '30's in general as a background for understandin..."

I would like to read it .I alrady read Homage to Catalonia. But there are questions I need answered.

[Robert]

Ricki wrote: "Ah, that's interesting.I'll have to start paying attention to photos. Poor you Robert, my response probably made no sense at all to you - sorry."

Well, when you said that "you know how busy [I:] am," I went to your profile. When I saw you were from the U.K., and knew how busy I am being retired in North Carolina, I felt that I must either be really famous or really infamous! Either way, I felt like a celebrity, so no need to apologize or feel bad about it.

[Robert]

Vikz wrote: "Thanks for the recommendation . I'm really interested in that period of history. So, this should be a good read. I am also looking forward to reading Homage to Catalonia. This must be..."

Having read the "Night Soldiers" by Allan Furst along with "The Dark Valley," I realized how little I knew about this period. It is really a seminal period in the 20th century. Everybody studies about WWI, WWII, the Cold War, Viet Nam, and many other of the watershed events of the 20th century in school. We also are simply told that the stock market crashed due to rampant speculation and precipitated the Great Depression. Very little time is spent delineating the ramifications of this on a world wide scale and developing the link between the Crash, the Depression, and their ultimate effect and expression in WWII. I thought "The Dark Valley" made that much more apparent and really kind of stitched together much of the seemingly separate events of the history of the 20th century.

[Jim]

That's the great thing about serious fiction. You are not just amused. You actually learn something about how things are.

When I think back to my Navy days, the most compelling memory is the smell of the inside of a ship, sort of a combination smoke and sweat and oil and whatever was cooking in the galley. Nobody mentions that in a history of naval operations, but it was one of the dominant features of daily life for people on destroyers and should be recorded somewhere.

I liked Furst's Spies of Warsaw, so I guess I'll have to give The Dark Valley a try.

[Robert]

I agree with you about good fiction, but it doesn't have to necessarily be literary fiction. I have terrible motion sickness, and I will never be any kind of a sailor other than of rubber duckies once my daughters provide me with grandchildren. On the other hand, I have learned much about the workings of sailing ships and the sense of kinship with the sea and crew through reading all of the Hornblower novels of E.M. Forrester. By the way, my cousin read "Spies of Warsaw," which is on my "to read" shelf.

[Melissa]

Smells (or stink) play a big role in Orwell's description of daily experience along the front in the opening chapters of Homage to Catalonia, but your comment interests me for another reason too, Jim. My uncle served as a medic (chief petty officer) on a Destroyer Escort on the North Atlantic station in WW2, but for some reason I remember him mentioning the food, the stormy weather, odd characters among the officers and crew, and various aspects of convoy duty more than the smells. Maybe he didn't think the stink was as edifying for my young ears.

[Jane]

I am not reading Homage to Catalonia, but I am reading Winter in Madrid. It also covers the Spanish Civil War and Madrid in 1940 during WWII. You can see the effects of the Civil War on the city of Madrid in the WWII parts of the book. I was always confused by the fact that the Communists called themselves Republicans and the Fascists called themselves Nationalists, but now I have a better understanding of civil war.

[Sherry, Doyenne]

I call this "Our Year of War." It seems like every book we've read in the last six months is about war. What a coincidence that the Classics book and the CR book for October have to do with the Spanish Civil War. We couldn't have planned it any better.

[Mary Anne]

And I was giving you credit for timing these books together on purpose!

[Sherry, Doyenne]

Pure luck, MAP. Sometimes we do pair readings, but this was serendipity.

[Robert]

Jane wrote: "I am not reading Homage to Catalonia, but I am reading Winter in Madrid. It also covers the Spanish Civil War and Madrid in 1940 during WWII. You can see the effects of the Civil War on the city ..."

Well, I guess it's obvious that great minds think alike.

[Barbara]

Welcome to Constant Reader, Robert. And, thank you for this recommendation. I'm reading Homage to Catalonia and have been thinking that I need to consult a timeline of some sort but this book sounds much better. Where did you get it? So far, I haven't been able to find it on Amazon.

BTW, I find Homage to Catalonia fascinating. I am waiting for the discussion to say why, but it's another example of a book I would never have discovered on my own.

[Barbara]

Oh my gosh, I can't believe this. I just checked my library online and they have two copies of The Dark Valley: A Panorama of the Thirties. I will pick it up this weekend.

[Robert]

Barbara wrote: "Welcome to Constant Reader, Robert. And, thank you for this recommendation. I'm reading Homage to Catalonia and have been thinking that I need to consult a timeline of some sort but this book sou..."

I'm surprised that you didn't find it on Amazon. I actually took it out of my local library, and wound up renewing it a couple of times. I'm sure it's out there, if you want to by it as a reference for keeps; now that idea is seeming more appealing to me. The great thing about the book is that the sections are complete in themselves as they move from Europe to Asia to the United States. The book doesn't have to be read front to back, although it is arranged roughly chronologically through the decade of the '30's.

[Robert]

Barbara wrote: "Oh my gosh, I can't believe this. I just checked my library online and they have two copies of The Dark Valley: A Panorama of the Thirties. I will pick it up this weekend. "

Great. I just went to Amazon, and searched in books, and they have it too.