Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood is an autobiographical comedy book written by the South African comedian Trevor Noah, published in 2016.
Pretty good! My biggest complaint is in the editing -- the time periods kind of jump all over the place, and not in an interesting, Christopher Nolan sort of way. Also, the transition from being a street hood in Johannesburg to host of the Daily Show was kind of not present at all; I guess we have to wait for the sequel to see how Trevor gets out of the country!
That said, the ultimate message of "holy shit Trevor Noah lived through some real abject poverty and abuse as a kid" was great, and something that all privileged kids should read. Also, I learned a lot more about street-level life in South Africa during the transition to post-apartheid, which was interesting and terrible.
Solid writing. Good organization, good pace. Great balance of humor, personal tragedy, and literal crimes against humanity: while certainly dark and disturbing, it was never unbearably so.
Trevor's voice shines throughout. I'd love to hear him read it.
I'd like to hear the omitted part of this story, which I assume is Trevor's meteoric rise to international fame. His (legal) career is mentioned hardly at all, and I find his success all the more interesting given his tough breaks and illicit activities as a youngster. (Host of the Daily Show? How's this kid not in prison somewhere?) I think there's one bit where he's like, "I did a little stand up" and another where he mentioned he had hosted a (television?) show. And that's it.
In retrospect, it was almost like the story he wanted to tell was that of his family and friends, and the politics that shaped their …
Solid writing. Good organization, good pace. Great balance of humor, personal tragedy, and literal crimes against humanity: while certainly dark and disturbing, it was never unbearably so.
Trevor's voice shines throughout. I'd love to hear him read it.
I'd like to hear the omitted part of this story, which I assume is Trevor's meteoric rise to international fame. His (legal) career is mentioned hardly at all, and I find his success all the more interesting given his tough breaks and illicit activities as a youngster. (Host of the Daily Show? How's this kid not in prison somewhere?) I think there's one bit where he's like, "I did a little stand up" and another where he mentioned he had hosted a (television?) show. And that's it.
In retrospect, it was almost like the story he wanted to tell was that of his family and friends, and the politics that shaped their circumstances. And he included himself only as much as necessary to tell that story.
Anyway. 10 out of 10. Recommended to everybody.
Oh, and, I'll quote @Mel here for you, because I didn't heed her warning, and I regretted it, and I don't want you to make the same mistake I did:
When you get the part where they're riding around on a bus looking for lunch, skip the next two paragraphs.
It's because of graphic descriptions of eating actual, literal goat heads. And it gets way gross from there. Gross enough that I squeezed my eyes closed really tight, but my book down in my lap, and whispered, "Ewwwwww," out loud to myself.
