The book recounts Orwell's time on the front line in the Spanish Civil War, for the most part around Huesca. Orwell was in Spain for around 8 months and saw two rounds of service. He was invalided out of the army owing to a bullet wound to the neck and had to leave Spain in a hurry as the POUM, who he was fighting for, was named illegal by the Government (who were on the same side 'against fascism').
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Overwhelmingly the feeling in the book is one of disorganisation, boredom, confusion and futility. He talks a lot about politics and socialism but doesn't match the ideas with reality. Throughout the book I was wondering what on earth he was doing there, essentially doing nothing much but being cold and hungry for months at a time.
There are no characters other than Orwell himself, he references others by name but never introduces the reader to them, we don't know or care about anyone else. We don't even know the name of the woman he calls 'my wife' or know what she is doing besides living in a hotel in Barcelona, patiently waiting for him to come back from the front. This all contributes to the thin feeling of Homage to Catalonia. It's hard to care about the extras in a film suffering and dying, it's much easier to care about the protagonists. Orwell doesn't bring the war down to a human level.
On the back cover of the book there is a quote from Antony Beevor 'An unrivalled picture of the rumours, suspicions and treachery of civil war'. The blurb says Orwell writes with 'bitter intensity'. I don't think I read the same book.
