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Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood by Trevor Noah is narrated by the author and is a look back at his childhood in South Africa while it was under apartheid and after. He is the child of a black mother and a white father, and under apartheid he was classified as colored alongside the Indians, Chinese, and others that were neither black nor white. Being born colored was a crime because white and black people were not supposed to procreate. But beyond only the complex and illogical thinking that is apartheid and racism, in general, Noah’s life was anything but plush. His mother loved him and he loved his mother, but tough love was the order of the day given the fact that his parents had broken the law to have him in the first place. I knew little about this nation other than Nelson Mandela was there in jail for a long time and that whites somehow controlled an entire country of black people (I really couldn’t wrap my head around it as a child or even now).
Noah’s religious mother believed that Jesus could cure any ill and help her through any challenge, but he did not. Many stories involve them arguing about the role of Jesus and God like lawyers. At one point, they were arguing in a series of letters. Despite the tough love and the arguments about religion, Noah seems to have reconciled those actions with her good intentions. Many of these stories help to establish a line he has drawn between the tough love she showed him and the beatings he received from his step-father later in life. Readers looking for information on South Africa and apartheid will find some of that here, but this is a memoir about how that regime and its consequences not only shaped the lives of others, but also that of Noah (as well as how he was treated by others). His adaptability to certain situations and cultures is a credit to his own ability to puzzle out how best to survive in this barbed world.
Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood by Trevor Noah is funny, heart-warming, sad, and infuriating. Like many young men, he chooses the wrong path to make money and get ahead, but he also learns a great deal from his own mistakes. One tragedy clearly shaped the narrative of this letter; it is like a love letter to his mother and how they grew together as a family despite the external challenges they faced.
RATING: Cinquain
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