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hasna03 's review for:
Born a Crime: Stories From a South African Childhood
by Trevor Noah
Trevor Noah was born in 1984, six years before the end of apartheid, his mother is native African, father is Swiss German and so he naturally is a mixed-race child. When he was born his existence was technically a crime as per South African apartheid law, thus he literally was born a crime.
“We tell people to follow their dreams, but you can only dream of what you can imagine, and, depending on where you come from, your imagination can be quite limited.”
He talks in detail about how he grew up in apartheid and how its aftermaths influenced some of the major events in his life. During apartheid the population was divided into three categories: the black, the colored and the white. They had categorized everything according to the race. And that determined where they lived, which language they spoke, which school they went, what job they had.
He talks about how he was culturally black yet always in the middle. Not being black enough and not being white enough, consequently not being able to belong to any group in schools, in his neighborhoods.
He talks about certain topics which are utterly tragic and inhumane but he makes it digestible to the readers in a sarcastic, funny way. There isn't a single chapter that won't pierce your heart, at the same time it'salleviated with humor. This tells how captivating his writing was, not inordinately preachy yet delivering the message.
I was listening to the audiobook simultaneously. And it was the best memoir I've ever heard someone narrate. He did all the African accents, he talked in everyone's voices and sang too.
I've never heard or read anyone describing the act of shitting in so much detail and with such understanding.
“We tell people to follow their dreams, but you can only dream of what you can imagine, and, depending on where you come from, your imagination can be quite limited.”
He talks in detail about how he grew up in apartheid and how its aftermaths influenced some of the major events in his life. During apartheid the population was divided into three categories: the black, the colored and the white. They had categorized everything according to the race. And that determined where they lived, which language they spoke, which school they went, what job they had.
He talks about how he was culturally black yet always in the middle. Not being black enough and not being white enough, consequently not being able to belong to any group in schools, in his neighborhoods.
He talks about certain topics which are utterly tragic and inhumane but he makes it digestible to the readers in a sarcastic, funny way. There isn't a single chapter that won't pierce your heart, at the same time it'salleviated with humor. This tells how captivating his writing was, not inordinately preachy yet delivering the message.
I was listening to the audiobook simultaneously. And it was the best memoir I've ever heard someone narrate. He did all the African accents, he talked in everyone's voices and sang too.
I've never heard or read anyone describing the act of shitting in so much detail and with such understanding.