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fbroom's review against another edition
5.0
I've never heard of Trevor Noah before listening to this book. I picked it up because it was a best seller on audible with a lot of reviews. It turned out to be a heart-warming, entertaining collection of stories filled with insights from Trevor's life in South Africa during the apartheid.
- He mentions how people expect the lower income population to just learn new skills and get new jobs but they ignore the fact that these people don’t have the resources to learn new skills and that they still need help.
- He talked about hustling in the hood and how he didn’t gain anything from it after not being able to go to college. He was just stuck there. He knew he could do better but he was unable to leave. He talked about how it was easy to just ignore the fact that the stuff they were selling were actually stolen.
- He talks about his mother’s relationship with her abusive husband and how the police didn’t once open a case against him despite his mother’s insistence on many occasions.
- He talks about the strong role model his mother provided to him.
- He mentions a funny and yet a sad story about performing at a bar mitzvah and bringing his friend Hitler with him. The story shows how different people can be from each other despite the proximity.
He talks about many more stories filled with insights and laugher. I highly recommend this book on audio for a road trip.
- He mentions how people expect the lower income population to just learn new skills and get new jobs but they ignore the fact that these people don’t have the resources to learn new skills and that they still need help.
- He talked about hustling in the hood and how he didn’t gain anything from it after not being able to go to college. He was just stuck there. He knew he could do better but he was unable to leave. He talked about how it was easy to just ignore the fact that the stuff they were selling were actually stolen.
- He talks about his mother’s relationship with her abusive husband and how the police didn’t once open a case against him despite his mother’s insistence on many occasions.
- He talks about the strong role model his mother provided to him.
- He mentions a funny and yet a sad story about performing at a bar mitzvah and bringing his friend Hitler with him. The story shows how different people can be from each other despite the proximity.
He talks about many more stories filled with insights and laugher. I highly recommend this book on audio for a road trip.
blairfrank's review against another edition
4.0
It was hard to follow at first due to my lack of knowledge about Africa and the apartheid, but Noah managed to make the geography understandable.
laura1laura2's review against another edition
hopeful
informative
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
sad
fast-paced
4.25
namitakhanna's review against another edition
5.0
A fantastically narrated audiobook which I would throughly recommend
shirley098's review against another edition
emotional
funny
hopeful
reflective
medium-paced
4.75
An absolutely wild ride, giving snippets, both lighthearted, fun, but also heavy, dark, of a childhood lived in a transitory South Africa. Noah's narration was warm and vivid, creating his full cast of friends and family on his own (Grandma Coco being a highlight). His personal insights into race, class, systemic oppression, and the cycle of poverty, were sharp and interesting to consider.
End note: His mother, Patricia Nombuyiselo Noah, is an absolute force to be reckoned with; I found her completely admirable in how she always refused to complain and play a victim, despite all the hardships she lived through.
Quotes that stuck with me:
People always lecture the poor: “Take responsibility for yourself! Make something of yourself!” But with what raw materials are the poor to make something of themselves?
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.
We spend so much time being afraid of failure, afraid of rejection. But regret is the thing we should fear most. Failure is an answer. Rejection is an answer. Regret is an eternal question you will never have the answer to.
Learn from your past and be better because of your past,” she would say, “but don’t cry about your past. Life is full of pain. Let the pain sharpen you, but don’t hold on to it. Don’t be bitter.
People thought my mom was crazy. Ice rinks and drive-ins and suburbs, these things were izinto zabelungu -- the things of white people. So many people had internalized the logic of apartheid and made it their own. Why teach a black child white things? Neighbors and relatives used to pester my mom: 'Why do this? Why show him the world when he's never going to leave the ghetto?'
'Because,' she would say, 'even if he never leaves the ghetto, he will know that the ghetto is not the world. If that is all I accomplish, I've done enough.
So many black families spend all of their time trying to fix the problems of the past. That is the curse of being black and poor, and it is a curse that follows you from generation to generation. My mother calls it “the black tax.” Because the generations who came before you have been pillaged, rather than being free to use your skills and education to move forward, you lose everything just trying to bring everyone behind you back up to zero.
End note: His mother, Patricia Nombuyiselo Noah, is an absolute force to be reckoned with; I found her completely admirable in how she always refused to complain and play a victim, despite all the hardships she lived through.
Quotes that stuck with me:
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.
'Because,' she would say, 'even if he never leaves the ghetto, he will know that the ghetto is not the world. If that is all I accomplish, I've done enough.
katemalone's review against another edition
4.25
easy read, kept me engaged, sad but also sweet story
emilyb_chicago's review against another edition
5.0
Going into this book, I only knew that Trevor Noah was the Daily Show replacement for Jon Stewart. I only watched a couple of his shows, but I was just curious enough to listen to this book. I expected his book to be just another comedian’s memoir. I was surprised at how well written the book is, how varied his background is and how much I like him after spending the time reading this book.
Even if it’s not your normal medium, I highly recommend you listen to this book. Noah reads it himself and speaks fluently the variety of African languages he quotes - in a physical book I’d have skimmed over those sentences. He drops into the correct accent with ease that allows the listener to associate even more with his life and live the stories beside him.
This book relates some events of his youth and upbringing with humor and perspective that allows you to laugh along with him - I believe he easily could have had me crying for most of his story if he’d that is what he’d wanted. I am looking forward to reading anything else he writes.
Even if it’s not your normal medium, I highly recommend you listen to this book. Noah reads it himself and speaks fluently the variety of African languages he quotes - in a physical book I’d have skimmed over those sentences. He drops into the correct accent with ease that allows the listener to associate even more with his life and live the stories beside him.
This book relates some events of his youth and upbringing with humor and perspective that allows you to laugh along with him - I believe he easily could have had me crying for most of his story if he’d that is what he’d wanted. I am looking forward to reading anything else he writes.
_amandamcgee's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
inspiring
fast-paced
4.5
rossi_dyl's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
4.5