Padre!: A Place Whose Rules Rearrange Your Own

by Raven Moore

Overview

Described as 'that missing voice from Generation X' by Roger Muntu from Voice of America, Raven fashions you front row seats to the ride of a lifetime. She is a cultural, nonfictionist tyrannosaurus rex and her narration of the lives of Ivoiriens during her 2 years living in Cote d'Ivoire, West Africa as a Peace Corps Volunteer makes you fall in love with this story and laugh out loud when you least expect it. How do Ivoiriens define color, class, gender, sexuality, religion, and more, differently than you or I do? "Padre!" will enthrall you, surprise you, entertain you, and give you a profound, new view of the world that will help you to navigate it better at any level.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780989726603
Publisher:	Books by Raven
Publication date:	10/08/2013
Pages:	336
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.80(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

On paper, Raven Moore is a graduate of Georgetown University, a cultural nonfiction writer, a Japanese translator, a public speaker, and the author of “Padre!: A place whose rules rearrange your own.”

But, essentially, Raven is a citizen of the world. She breathes air. She loves dancing in her living room. She doesn't eat cow. She loves unsweetened soy milk. She runs ten miles on a dare. She picks up languages very easily. And, she is guaranteed to make you laugh hard at least once in every story — a cultural nonfiction-writing, narrative tyrannosaurus rex. Roar!

Books By Raven is Raven's own publishing company. She prefers truth over fantasy, but regardless of genre, enjoys books with a positive purpose that foster global conversation. Raven's writing floats in the realms of cultural anthropology, psychology, global issues, and masterfully blends truth and complexity with laughter.

Read an Excerpt

“The Ivoirien children who you see me living with on the cover of this book are poor but poverty is not a permanent condition, nor does it have a recognizable face. Color was and is not often the reason for our mistreatment of one another. The Egyptians, the Moors, the Mongolians, the Romans, the Jews, the British, the Ottomans, the Dutch, the Americans, the Mandinka, the Mayans, and more; the list of conquerors is as diverse as those conquered. Ivoiriens in the Ivory Coast—La Cote d'Ivoire as it is called in West Africa—have it badly, but I'm not here to make you feel sorry for Ivoiriens. Feel sorry for me that it took me so long to figure out why I came here in the first place.”

What People are Saying About This

Peace Corps Worldwide

Moore does a lot of soul-searching in this book, much of it hilarious. She is “Black” in America but she is usually not seen as “black” in the Ivory Coast. In fact, she is often called “La Blanche,” the white woman, by Ivoiriens. This is a bit of a shock to someone who has come to Africa hoping to find a connection, only to feel like an outsider. (In a funny and ironic twist, even when she meets Ivoiriens who are as light-skinned as she or even lighter, Moore is still referred to as the white woman.)
In some ways, Moore goes through what many of us probably have, thinking we were going to be somewhere familiar or somewhere we viewed as home, only to feel like an outsider. In other ways, her experience is a funny, touching, honest portrayal of race in Africa and in America, and one person's investigation into what race really means.

Editorial Reviews

"It's a work of truth, laughter, and exploration"

Montclair Times