The compelling, inspiring, (often comic) coming-of-age story of Trevor Noah, set during the twilight of apartheid and the tumultuous days of freedom that followed.
One of the comedy world's brightest new voices, Trevor Noah is a light-footed but sharp-minded observer of the absurdities of politics, race and identity, sharing jokes and insights drawn from the wealth of experience acquired in his relatively young life. As host of the US hit show The Daily Show with Trevor Noah, he provides viewers around the globe with their nightly dose of biting satire, but here Noah turns his focus inward, giving readers a deeply personal, heartfelt and humorous look at the world that shaped him.
Noah was born a crime, son of 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 …
The compelling, inspiring, (often comic) coming-of-age story of Trevor Noah, set during the twilight of apartheid and the tumultuous days of freedom that followed.
One of the comedy world's brightest new voices, Trevor Noah is a light-footed but sharp-minded observer of the absurdities of politics, race and identity, sharing jokes and insights drawn from the wealth of experience acquired in his relatively young life. As host of the US hit show The Daily Show with Trevor Noah, he provides viewers around the globe with their nightly dose of biting satire, but here Noah turns his focus inward, giving readers a deeply personal, heartfelt and humorous look at the world that shaped him.
Noah was born a crime, son of 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 first 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, take him away.
A collection of eighteen personal stories, Born a Crime tells the story of a mischievous young boy growing into a restless young man as he struggles to find his place in a world where he was never supposed to exist. Born a Crime is equally the story of that young man's fearless, rebellious and fervently religious mother - a woman determined to save her son from the cycle of poverty, violence and abuse that ultimately threatens her own life.
Whether subsisting on caterpillars for dinner during hard times, being thrown from a moving car during an attempted kidnapping, or just trying to survive the life-and-death pitfalls of dating in high school, Noah illuminates his curious world with an incisive wit and an unflinching honesty. His stories weave together to form a personal portrait of an unlikely childhood in a dangerous time, as moving and unforgettable as the very best memoirs and as funny as Noah's own hilarious stand-up. Born a Crime is a must read.
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.
