The War Diary of Clare Gass 1915–1918 ed. by Susan Mann (review)

324 LETTERS IN CANADA 2000 this long-distance relationship, Brittain and Catlin had two children, and Brittain established a name for herself, producing throughout her career >some twenty books and thousands of journalistic pieces= which testify to her lifelong commitment to women=s social, sexual, and political concerns. Given the scope of Brittain=s life and work, it is helpful that Gorham consistently historicizes and contextualizes subjects such as VADs, the Western Front, feminism, the League of Nations, and the Chelsea Babies Club, to name a few. Though her narrative follows Brittain=s life from birth to death, it is not a straightforward linear one. She approaches her subject thematically, with useful summaries at the start or end of sections that weave the threads of historical, political, social, and literary analyses into a connected pattern. The book as a whole is immensely engaging because Brittain is a fascinating, complex figure. In the postmodern spirit, Gorham sought to understand the >relationship between Brittain=s experience and her representations of that experience.= Her extensive research into Brittain=s œuvre reveals how Brittain used the many sites available to her B diaries, letters, fiction, and non-fiction B to construct personae that both reflected and directed her sense of self bestriding the stage of twentieth-century feminism and pacifism. Brittain emerges as a writer who challenged traditional literary distinctions that valued men in the public, and devalued women in the private, realms of experience. As Brittain herself affirms, she wanted to write >history in terms of personal life.= In this comprehensive biography, Gorham reveals a woman who successfully wrote history in terms of a woman=s personal and public life. (ELIZABETH PODNIEKS) Susan Mann, editor. The War Diary of Clare Gass 1915B1918 McGill-Queen=s University Press. xlviii, 306. $34.95 During the First World War, Clare Gass spent four years as a lieutenant and nursing sister in the medical corps of the Canadian Expeditionary Force. The diary she kept records her experience from military training in Montreal in 1915 to her return from Europe in 1918. The War Diary of Clare Gass is part of the Hannah Institute=s Studies in the History of Medicine, but is also an important addition to Canadian military and women=s history. This is a valuable document for anyone interested in responses to the First World War. The diary is quite readable, and Gass=s lively and engaging personality comes across clearly. Her intelligence, independence, and curiosity make one wish that she had continued the diary further, into her later career as a social worker. Gass knew that her overseas service was an unusual experience for a woman, and was determined to use her time in France fully. The War Diary is nearly as much travel diary as it is war diary, documenting, for instance, bicycling expeditions in her hours off that leave HUMANITIES 325 the reader in exhausted admiration. One particular way that Gass=s diary is exceptional is that it was written by a professional rather than a volunteer. The daily business of nursing is thus approached with a matter-of-factness that contrasts with the more introspective diaries of literary women like Vera Brittain. The fact that her time in the wards receives less mention than hours off and leave is understandable. More frustrating is the little space given to her own emotional reflections. The diary was perhaps not intended as a wholly private record, and thus a degree of reserve remains, obviating the potential of the diary as a subversive document. In the first part of the diary Gass tends to use others= words to express her feelings, copying poems, including McCrae=s >In Flanders= Fields,= (which, in an interesting footnote, appears in the diary before its publication). Later, after tragedy has struck her closely, the entries become shorter and less frequent; the silences here provide an eloquent expression of grief. The reserve is likely related to the self-censorship of soldiers. However, it serves further as support for Allison Bashford=s theory of women medical practioners= hesitancy in speaking about men=s bodies, because of the reversal in the man/subject, woman/object relationship. The diary is also useful for historians...