Penney Kome has exposed the political machinations and internal manoeuvreing of governments in a clear and linear style seldom seen in public accounts of political action, certainly not when that action has involved the interests and participation of women.

Kome gives a factual view and intimate insight into the creative, inventive and resourceful methods used by women to accomplish this remarkable task without money, communication facilities, transportation, office space or other advantages.

Calling into play networking skills developed through work in many different organizations and committees, the Ad Hoc Committee mobilized women through on-line education with the issue. Penny Kome describes the virtual take-over of government offices in Ottawa, the recruitment of almost round-the-clock volunteers, and the unorthodox tactics used to commandeer the required services and materials. Through the use of anecdotal accounts we may catch more than a glimpse of the collective feminist methodology and decision making process which, to the uninitiated, is baffling and in- comprehensible. To the players it is sharing power.

Penney Kome is known to many readers through her familiar column, Woman's Place, in Homemaker's Magazine. One of the finest current historians of the Women's Movement in Canada, Kome has painstakingly traced, through numerous interviews with women across the country, the events which lead to the explosive conference of February 14, 1981. Familiar with the political scene in Ottawa, Kome has examined and analyzed the intricate and often byzantine events of the Anderson-Axworthy-Canadian Advisory Council epic. She traces the complex events and differing interpretations through to the November 1981 conclusion: the process, as much as the final result, of legislative change is examined.

The impact of Ad Hockery will stand as a future model for political action. It has already been modified for use in mobilizing the fight against pornography.

These new and innovative approaches, uniquely feminist, were unprecedented. There was no time to consult references in political protocol. The women left behind the male structures, collectively creating through necessary short-cuts, a unique feminist mode of operation. The Taking of 28 tells this story well, but it is limited by its length. It cannot possibly record in 126 pages the enormous detail and dimension of this struggle. It cannot probe the details or the contributions of the many women who are acknowledged only in general statements of inclusion. Credit, while richly deserved. Many have been inappropriately or exclusively given in some cases. Many readers will assess and analyze the events differently. An experience as intimate and unique to the women involved will inevitably meet with differences in detail and interpretation. Such is the problem of recording history without the perspective of distance.

My own memories of those heady times are filled with anecdotes illustrative of the thinking and working style of wonderful and determined women. Penny Kome brings back those days with excitement and urgency. She chooses each word for its weight and force to target the essence of each moment. Ruling through the pages the reader will recognize many spaces, like pauses in rapid breathing, where there is more story yet to be told.

The Taking of 28 provides a point of departure for historians of the Women's Movement a lesson for governments and political parties, a prideful story for women to examine, and good reading for us all.