A review by questingnotcoasting
Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood by Trevor Noah

challenging emotional funny fast-paced

4.0

This was as funny as I was hoping but also really effective in conveying what it was like to be between white and Black, both during and after apartheid. As someone who knows very little about South Africa I found this eye-opening and certainly never boring as Noah has had a fascinating life. His storytelling is brilliant and the tone shifts from funny to serious are handled well. It's not quite told in chronological order and often Noah repeats a piece of information from a previous chapter. I thought maybe the anecdotes were originally written as standalone essays which would explain the repetition but then sometimes he did refer to previous chapters. It was slightly confusing but luckily not enough to affect my enjoyment. I slightly regret not listening to the audiobook because I can imagine it was really well done, especially as it includes multiple languages but Noah's voice did come through so distinctly even on the page. 
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