Born a Crime: Stories From a South African Childhood by Trevor Noah
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I’m sure we all miss Jon Stewart, when he left the Daily Show. And I, for one, had never heard of Trevor Noah, when he took over. He has a slightly different sense of humor than Jon did, and it took getting used to.
So when I saw that he had a memoir out, I thought, cool, I can find out more about this man.
And find out I did. This is an amazing memoir, espcially for Americans who have heard of Aprtaid, knew it exisited, knew there was a country called South Afirca, but that was about as much as they knew. Trevor explains it all paitently while laying out his early life before us all.
The title of the book refers to his birth. It was illegal to have mixed race babies, before Apartaid ended, but his mother didn’t give a damn. In fact, he wasn’t a mistake, but a planned child. However, because he was illegal, it was hard for him to be near his mother.
Considered to light to be black and not light enough to be white, he would fit in with what South Africa called “colored” but he wasn’t that either. He was an outsider on all counts. And he explains it all, while pouring out his life to us.
He has some great lines.
People love to say, “Give a man a fish, and he’ll eat for a day. Teach a man to fish and he’ll eat for a lifetime.” What they don’t say is, “And it would be nice if you gave him a fishing rod.” That’s the part of the analogy that’s missing.
Great book if youwant to find out more about Trevor. Great book if you want an intersting read that explains Aprataid from someone who lived through it. Great book in general.
Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review