Off Our Rockers and Into Trouble, The Raging Grannies. Alison Acker and Betty Brightwell. (2004). Heritage House Publishing Company Ltd., Victoria, BC, 224 pages.

One hundred years ago, President Theodore Roosevelt coined the name "muckrakers" to designate those literary personalities who exposed corruption and unethical practices in the meatpacking, oil, railroad, and food industries.Although sometimes vilified as opportunists, those who raked around in the muck were ultimately responsible for major governmental reforms in these industries and paved the way for progressive legislation.Contrasting Canada's own muckraking phenomena, The Raging Grannies, with their earlier American counterparts is a bit of a stretch, but this movement, which began in Victoria, BC in 1987, does have similar ends in mind: "We were out to shock....We would rattle the cages of all those who, we felt, were destroying our world: politicians, corporations, warmongers and wreckers of the environment" (p.xi).Who are the Raging Grannies?As their name indicates, they are grandmothers who would go anywhere and do anything to focus attention on issues of their concern, whether by wearing outrageous clothes, writing outrageous poetry, or singing outrageous words with undisciplined voices.Indeed, after almost two decades of showmanship, the Grannies are not only national in scope, but have international counterparts.True enough, one can call Off Our Rockers and Into Trouble, The Raging Grannies a history of this 17-year-old movement, but that would be too limiting a description.To be sure, their purpose is to gain our attention to their concerns, and they will delightfully employ any means to achieve publicity.If only public awareness were enough, but, as they candidly admit, it isn't.Are they then a failure?Definitely not, although perhaps it is still too early to tell.As outlandish as their means might be, they have been responsible for the creation of sixty chapters throughout Canada, the United States, Great Britain, and even Australia.There is a Grannies Without Borders chapter, while the Ottawa contingent, known as the Parliament Hill Mob, often manages to garner national attention, as they did in protest to the

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