A Moment of War (Penguin Modern Classics)

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Particularly memorable is the description of the air-raid on Valencia and the depiction of a country at war with itself 'an infection so deep it seemed to rot the earth, drain it of colour, life and sound.

Nevertheless, A moment of War, is a chilling expose of the futility of warfare, the pointlessness of killing, the destruction of a society and the stagnation that pervaded the civil war in Spain. Really, there’s such little emotional at all I couldn’t tell how Lee felt about anything, or if he really even cared to be there. A fine first edition set of Laurie Lee's most important literary contribution, a smart set of his autobiographical trilogy.Even when his life was in danger or he was reunited with people he had met before, I barely sensed a glimmer of an emotion.

Firstly, there are very few sections where Lee’s prose gets a chance to shine here due to the subject of this book, so while the previous in the trilogy was slightly dull, it always had this going for it, which is much more (but not entirely) absent here and so isn’t able to carry the book’s weaker components.Perhaps only appearing more shocking on a backdrop of bullets and bombs than breezey Gloucestershire meadows and wine-soaked Spanish bars. This is one of those times when I am reviewing based entirely on my response to the subject matter - and has nothing to do with the quality of the writing. As a young man Lee, despite carrying the burden of two girl's names, decided he had to go and fight fascists in Spain. But with not enough personal details that make you care for any of the characters, the detached quality of the narration and when spaniards appear at all you feel Laurie is dealing with a different race he doesn't particularly like, to the point that you start to wonder what on earth he is doing in Spain in the first place.

A Moment of War is the third and final book in Laurie Lee’s autobiographical account of his childhood and youth. Lee's writing is so honest and skilled that I read this book for his writing, and only later realized there was an understated narrative. However I started seeing a Spanish guy, and so, with a little more relevance to my life again, the literary journey continued. This is the final instalment in that trilogy, and it would have gone right by me had I not seen a friend's review here on goodreads. At the sight of the instrument faces softened, eyes brightened, sleeping children were awoken with pinches.

Before crossing the Pyrenees into Spain in December 1937 at the age of 23, Laurie Lee had already walked to London from the Cotswold village in which he was raised.