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Trevor Noah: Born a Crime (Paperback, 2016, Macmillan) 5 stars

Trevor Noah’s path from apartheid South Africa to the desk of The Daily Show in …

Review of 'Born a Crime' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

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.