Tome Time - The Spanish Civil War by Antony Beevor

Started May 19th, finished December 16th.  410 pages.

This is a book I wanted to read after seeing a few films set in the era soon after the Civil War.  I wasn't pleased by my total lack of knowledge of what happened.  I was glad that the book is written by Beevor as I find his books an interesting read and easy to understand.

A quick look at the glossary should have warned me of what was to come.  This is a very difficult conflict to grasp.  There are so many factions within the two warring sides.  Far too many names involved to make remembering who's who completely possible.

I came out of the reading of the book with an understanding of what had happened and why.  However the finer an even not so fine detail isn't clear to me.  This may be mostly my fault.  As the book was such a heavy read I dipped in and out of it.  A chapter here, a few pages there.  The book is well written, it's just a very hard subject to grasp.  I'm very glad I read it as I now have a good overview of events that led to Franco's dictatorship.

Neither side comes out of this book well.  The ridiculous in fighting and power struggles are infuriating to read about.  The lives they cost horrendous.  The barbarity of the commanders in what they dispatched their own men into is gut wrenching.  What they used their new technology to do to 'the other side' barbaric in the extreme.  This is a very depressing book.  Spain's people are used to test modern weaponry on by outside factors at no risk to themselves.

It stops at the end of the war.  I would like to read more though.  If anyone knows of any non-fiction accounts of life in Franco's Spain please let me know.  I can't seem to find any.  I can't read any more about the war itself for a long time though.  It seems film makers are now looking at Franco's reign and the war.  Maybe the books will follow.

4 out of 5 pawprints.

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