A review by rosieyxl
Born a Crime: Stories From a South African Childhood by Trevor Noah

adventurous emotional funny hopeful reflective medium-paced

4.0

"For my mother. My first fan. Thank you for making me a man."

Born A Crime is a hilarious yet poignant memoir from comedian Trevor Noah about his upbringing in South Africa as the country slowly shed itself of the apartheid skin.

I learned a lot from this book. It covered heavy topics like racism, crime, domestic abuse, and many more without making the writing incredibly tense or dull. This is a book that changed my perspective on a lot of things, with many memorable passages/scenes that I doubt I'll forget. Some quotes in particular which really stuck with me and gave me a moment of realization include:

  • "People don't want to be rich. They want to be able to choose. The richer you are, the more choices you have. That is the freedom of money."
  • "They're free, they've been taught how to fish, but no one will give them a fishing rod."
  • "They were men first, and police second."

This collection of stories is written in a very genuine, straightforward way, almost as though Trevor was delivering the entire book as a monologue on the Daily Show. He manages to convey his mother's (tough) love and devotion to him which propelled him through his coming-of-age, and this is the main theme which weaves through the entire collection. Regardless of whether he's hustling in the hood or getting to church on minibus, his mother was a constant.

This invisible thread ties the entire book together beautifully, and the ending was especially touching. I very much enjoyed the read.
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