Due to a passing in the family a few years ago and my subsequent health issues stemming from that, I was unable to download this book in time to review it before it was archived as I did not visit this site for years after the bereavement. Thank you for the opportunity.

As an autobiography and memoir this is vivid and honest, but its real value is in the picture it paints of Spain in the first half of the twentieth century. It's interesting to have the view of someone not a communist who yet fought fascism in the Spanish Civil War. There are occasions where the translation slips, but overall this is engrossing and makes a fuller companion to books like Orwell's Homage to Catalonia.

Extremely funny and frank. The opening third, though narrated from the perspective of adulthood, retains the naiveté of childhood, making for an oddly cruel and sexually frank representation of youth. Unpretentious, and rich with sentimental details - the food, the smells, the poverty. A vivid and memorable book, whose long length shouldn't put people off; it's very accessible, and it can be consumed in its original three discrete parts if the whole looks a bit daunting.

A unique autobiography and history of early twentieth century Spain. The first of the three volume book, The Forge, covers the Arturo Barea's early life in Spain from 1905-1915.   Part history and part biography this volume details life in Spain.  In the second volume, The Track, Barea covers his years in the Rif War as Spain tries to hold on to its last colony.  He sees this as the beginning of the fascist movement in Spain.  The final volume, The Clash, covers the war in Spain and Barea's exile to England.  Barea was in a rather unique position during the Spanish Civil War.  He fought the fascists but was not a communist which made him suspect on his own side. The third volume, by the way, is also the inspiration for a British punk band in the 1970s.  

Barea offers details in two wars that are not much covered in the United States.  The Riff War and the Spanish Civil War.  The latter is remembered mostly for the Abraham Lincoln Brigade and its famous members.  Barea's detailed writing style does seem long-winded at times, but he is chronicling events that would become a historical record and was likely fearful of the truth being suppressed by the Franco regime.  It was a period of brutality in both Morocco and Spain and became a prequel for the Second World War. Recommended for history readers with an interest in early 20th-century Spain.

Compelling, efficient, poignant prose; Barea strips his language of inessentials, rids it of all traces of verbosity, embelishment and sentimentality, blatantly striving to be as honest as possible. He describes actions by using short, simple sentences with as little emotional rhetoric as possible; the resulting prose is concentrated, concrete and capable of conveying emotion and irony.

A captivating coming-of-age novel, ideal to anyone who is interested in the Spanish Civil War.