Gossamerchild reviewed Born a Crime by Trevor Noah
Review of 'Born a Crime' on 'Storygraph'
5 stars
Just fantastic. His voice, his story, his humor...loved this.
English language
Published Jan. 14, 2016 by Spiegel & Grau.
4 stars
(172 reviews)
Noah's path from apartheid South Africa to the desk of The Daily Show began with a criminal act: his birth. Born to a white Swiss father and a black Xhosa mother, at the time such a union was punishable by five years in prison. As he struggles to find himself in a world where he was never supposed to exist, his mother is determined to save her son from the cycle of poverty, violence, and abuse that would ultimately threaten her own life. With an incisive wit and unflinching honesty, Noah weaves together a moving yet funny portrait of a boy making his way through a damaged world in a dangerous time.
Review of 'Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood' on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
Loved it
Moving, funny, and heart-wrenching at times. Trevor Noah's story of growing up poor and very Christian in apartheid South Africa is worth your time.
Review of 'Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood' on 'Goodreads'
I don't usually use audiobooks, but a friend highly recommended the audio version of this, and I'm so glad that I did. Trevor Noah reads his memoir himself. I daresay any successful standup comic would do a great job of reading their own material, but this has the added benefit of that at times he's talking in other languages, which wouldn't come through on the page half as well.
He grew up poor in South Africa, born during Apartheid. As the child of a Black mother and White father, he was literally a crime. His parents had be creative even to be seen in public with him.
I like reading books that take me outside of the setting and assumptions that I'm used to. This is thoroughly outside of my experience, and one story after another opened my eyes. I'd had no idea about the carefully studied and architect-ed nature …
I don't usually use audiobooks, but a friend highly recommended the audio version of this, and I'm so glad that I did. Trevor Noah reads his memoir himself. I daresay any successful standup comic would do a great job of reading their own material, but this has the added benefit of that at times he's talking in other languages, which wouldn't come through on the page half as well.
He grew up poor in South Africa, born during Apartheid. As the child of a Black mother and White father, he was literally a crime. His parents had be creative even to be seen in public with him.
I like reading books that take me outside of the setting and assumptions that I'm used to. This is thoroughly outside of my experience, and one story after another opened my eyes. I'd had no idea about the carefully studied and architect-ed nature of Apartheid, for example. While the book does have many dark things, it's also full of light, and very funny. His mother is a remarkable woman!
Review of 'Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood' on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
I've always appreciated Noah's wit on The Daily Show - I just hadn't realized what a great storyteller he is. And with a childhood in South Africa, he has some crazy-ass stories to tell. I would not be shocked if this wins a Pulitzer. It's just that good.
Marsha Woerner reviewed Born a Crime by Trevor Noah
Review of 'Born a Crime' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
An interesting and informative view into the life and environment of a mixed-race child in, mostly post, apartheid South Africa. It illustrated some aspects of the still remaining prejudices, tribality, humanity, and preconceptions of the area.
To be honest, I don't know that I would've liked Trevor Noah very much, although given the environment, it seems that he handled things, perhaps, as well as it could have.
It was not a linear story, timewise, which made it a bit confusing at times, but it still gave a somewhat illuminated picture of the society. I recommend it
Review of 'Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood' on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
"The compelling, inspiring, and comically sublime story of one man's coming-of-age, set during the twilight of apartheid and the tumultuous days of freedom that followed. Trevor Noah's unlikely path from apartheid South Africa to the desk of The Daily Show began with a criminal act: his birth. Trevor was born to a white Swiss father and a black Xhosa mother at a time when such a union was punishable by five years in prison. Living proof of his parents indiscretion, Trevor was kept mostly indoors for the earliest years of his life, bound by the extreme and often absurd measures his mother took to hide him from a government that could, at any moment, steal him away. Finally liberated by the end of South Africa's tyrannical white rule, Trevor and his mother set forth on a grand adventure, living openly and freely and embracing the opportunities won by a centuries-long …
"The compelling, inspiring, and comically sublime story of one man's coming-of-age, set during the twilight of apartheid and the tumultuous days of freedom that followed. Trevor Noah's unlikely path from apartheid South Africa to the desk of The Daily Show began with a criminal act: his birth. Trevor was born to a white Swiss father and a black Xhosa mother at a time when such a union was punishable by five years in prison. Living proof of his parents indiscretion, Trevor was kept mostly indoors for the earliest years of his life, bound by the extreme and often absurd measures his mother took to hide him from a government that could, at any moment, steal him away. Finally liberated by the end of South Africa's tyrannical white rule, Trevor and his mother set forth on a grand adventure, living openly and freely and embracing the opportunities won by a centuries-long struggle."
This book is amazing. That is all. Go preorder it.
I was reading this on my Kindle app and was highlighting like crazy. Trevor Noah has been an outsider all his life. In South Africa under apartheid there were four racial categories - white, black, colored, and Indian. Colored people were the descendants of interracial relationships in the past. There was no category for 50/50 black/white children because it couldn't legally happen. He chose to identify as black because that's what his mother was but he wasn't accepted there either.
Growing up both defined by and outside of such a strict racial hierarchy sharpened his insights.
"That is the curse of being black and poor, and it is a curse that follows you from generation to generation. My mother calls it "the black tax." Because the generations who came before you have been pillaged, rather than being free to use your skills and education to move forward, you lose everything just trying to bring everyone behind you back up to zero."
"British racism said, "If the monkey can walk like a man and talk like a man, then perhaps he is a man." Afrikaner racism said, "Why give a book to a monkey?"
He talks about history when describing why having a friend named Hitler wasn't considered strange.
"Every country thinks their history is the most important, and that's especially true in the West. But if black South Africans could go back in time and kill one person, Cecil Rhodes would come up before Hitler. If people in the Congo could go back in time and kill one person, Belgium's King Leopold would come way before Hitler. If Native Americans could go back in time and kill one person, it would probably be Christopher Columbus or Andrew Jackson."
"Holocaust victims count because Hitler counted them. Six million people killed. We can all look at that number and rightly be horrified. But when you read through the history of atrocities against Africans, there are no numbers, only guesses. It's harder to be horrified by a guess."
This is the story of growing up illegally because his mother fought to make a place for him even before the fall of apartheid. She was a visionary. However, even after apartheid there wasn't a place for him to make a legal living as easily as it was to make an illegal one in the townships. He talks about the saying about teaching a man to fish vs giving him a fish. He points out that it doesn't work if you don't also help him get a fishing pole.
This isn't the story of how he became a comedian or how he ended up taking over for Jon Stewart as the host of The Daily Show. That all comes later. This is the story of the world that shaped him into the person he is today. It is funny. It is horrifying. It is necessary reading.
I received this book from NetGalley.
This review was originally posted on Based On A True Story
