L.M. Montgomery and War ed. by Andrea McKenzie and Jane Ledwell (review)

In their introduction to L.M. Montgomery and War, Andrea McKenzie and Jane Ledwell make the familiar claim that the essays in the collection aim to fill a scholarly gap, specifically by considering Lucy Maud Montgomery's work within the context of war literature. Arguing that Montgomery's status as a war writer has been overlooked, the editors suggest that – while it has been established that Canada's attitude toward war was not necessarily or exclusively ironic – Montgomery, as a romantic writer, has not been taken seriously because her work does not take up the ironic stance of First World War battlefield insiders. The point here, echoed in a number of the essays, is that Montgomery's popularity, as well as her dependence on genre tropes, should not be confused with a position of uncritical support toward the war.

The first section of the introduction is a useful bio-bibliography that places Montgomery's publications in conversation with key life events, showing how the war affected her personally and making a convincing case regarding the persistence of Montgomery's reflections on war. Next, the editors take up the issue of extant scholarship on Montgomery and war, thus pursuing their central argument that Montgomery deserves to be acknowledged as a war writer. On occasion, this argument about her "rightful place" (18) leads to puzzling positioning, as the editors want to argue that Montgomery's response to war is complex enough to warrant extended analysis while at the same time being "truly representative" (20), as if a monolith.

The list of contributors to the volume is excellent, featuring top scholars from the fields of both Canadian First World War studies (for example, Jonathan Vance and Susan Fisher) and Montgomery studies (for example, Irene Gammel and Elizabeth Epperly). Indeed, some of the most provocative aspects of the volume emerge from the way critics within these two fields approach the distinct subjects of Montgomery and war. For example, the first two essays – by Vance and Gammel – take as their subject the matter of Montgomery's local response to the war. Vance argues that, unlike some Canadian writers who "eagerly embraced the war as a subject" (43), Montgomery immersed herself in local matters. In some ways, Vance, as a historian, is less concerned with Montgomery the writer than he is with rural Canadian communities in the period; Montgomery thus becomes an exemplar of the way "tens of thousands of other Canadians were" involved in the war (50), while Rilla of Ingleside (1921) – written after the war with the benefit of hindsight – becomes an exemplar of the "authentic" response of Canadian communities. Implicit here is the idea that taking Montgomery seriously as a sort of "every-Canadian" is the basis for taking her seriously as a war writer. Gammel, for her part, counters to some extent the idea that Montgomery's writing is more tempered and reflective than work published during the war, arguing that – in comparing Rilla to the art of "patriotic" painter Mary Riter Hamilton – what emerges is a portrayal of "love of country, domestic feminism, [and a] motivational message" (74).

Other standout essays include an analysis by Holly Pike, who makes the (interestingly) contradictory argument that while the character Walter Blythe confirms Montgomery's sense that the war represented a "dividing line in history" (88), the echoes in Rilla of Anne of Green Gables implicate the later novel in the genre of "war as romantic adventure" (75). Laura Robinson and Sarah Glassford consider in their essays the representation of home and/or the home front position in Rilla, while, in the third section of the collection, titled Healing or Hurt? The Aftermath, contributors consider the topic of grief in Montgomery's later work. Here, again, the juxtaposition of competing arguments is one of the collection's strengths. While Caroline Jones argues that the examination of "grief, loss, and sacrifice" is a "deliberate" response, showing Montgomery...