Jens reviewed Born a Crime by Trevor Noah
Review of 'Born a Crime' on 'Goodreads'
3 stars
Unfortunately I found this book much less interesting and surprisingly unfunny compared to the praise it's been receiving.
While it was interesting to discover Trevor Noah's history in various parts of South Africa and learn about the reality of life under Apartheid, I couldn't help but find the chapters a bit disjointed, not always well connected to each other. They aren't in chronological order either - which doesn't have to be a problem, but I often felt information from later chapters would have been helpful to understand previous ones better.
The depictions of domestic violence, and how people deal with it, moved me - those chapters were among the strongest for me, alongside those describing the linguistic diversity in South Africa and how it affects people's lives.
Trevor Noah's humor did not really come across in this book. There were a few moments that made me chuckle, but compared to what other reviewers describe - definitely not a "comedy" book for me.
An interesting read if you'd like to know more about South Africa in the 80s and 90s, or of course Trevor Noah's life before he became famous.