The Ivory Crocodile [Hardcover]

Eileen Drew (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1, 1996

In an effort to transcend her insulated childhood as the child of a European diplomat, a young woman in Africa joins a Peace Corps-type organization and is assigned to a remote school, where her life is forever changed by local African life. IP.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Set in the fictional Central African country of Tambala, this engaging first novel is narrated by Nicole, a young American whose naive idealism collides with the realities of postcolonial, post-Cold War Africa. Recent college grad Nicole decides to return to the continent in which she was raised when her father was a government employee in Guinea. She signs on as a teacher of English in AfricEd, a Peace Corps-like organization. Her journey into the heart of Tambala turns into a hard road to maturity. Ultimately, this is a novel of disillusionment as Nicole's initial desire to be accepted by the Tambalans yields to her increasing awareness of her own "otherness" and inability to affect change in her adoptive village. The teacher she falls in love with is really an Angolan freedom fighter; the young girl she nurtures as her assistant in a family-planning clinic becomes pregnant. The American idealist thwarted by an un-ideal world is not a new story, but Drew carefully articulates the complexity of managing cultural differences, and she understands?but does not herself succumb to?the romantic temptations that initially mislead Nicole.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal

YA. Nicole Spark spent her childhood in Africa as the daughter of an American diplomat, and she longs to recapture the nostalgia that overtakes her following her mother's death, her brother's wanderlust, and her father's withdrawal. After graduating from college, the young woman travels to Mampungu, an isolated bush post in fictional Tambala, as an English teacher with AfricEd. She wants to become a part of the native people but cannot escape her white skin and her Western heritage. She meets Mitch, a burly medic employed by an American contractor; Bwadi, another teacher who cannot escape his Angolan past; Diabelle, a young student who strives for the freedom that Nicole exudes. Nicole urges her to reach for more than a future as a village wife and involves her in a Family Planning Project that promises a future job in the city of Kimpiri. When Diabelle becomes pregnant, she overdoses on chloraquine and dies. Nicole leaves Africa, a wiser, more mature young woman. By looking at African life through a Western eye and questioning what is seen and experienced, Drew lends immediate understanding to why it is impossible to force one person's culture onto another individual's way of life.?Dottie Kraft, formerly at Fairfax County Public Schools, VA
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Coffee House Press; 1ST edition (May 1, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 156689042X
• ISBN-13: 978-1566890427
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,489,596 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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