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

5.0

I've mentioned before that sometimes it's really great to read the memoirs of comedians because they're used to mining and distilling personal experiences and to revise-revise-revising. This is true for this book even more than others that I can recall. Noah is an amazing writer and knows how to write for an American audience (which... I do think this is pitched at); revealing bit by bit in each chapter a South African experience that has parallels to the black/outsider experience in the US. I think this book could be illustrative to people who aren't motivated to read American authors of color; a general lack of familiarity with the realities of life under (and after) apartheid allows the reader to be more credulous of Noah's description of crime, the suburbs, domestic violence and therefore of its universality, even if, reading about the same issues in the US, they're already unsympathetic. Planning to buy a few copies to give to adult relatives, though it would be great for secondary school too I think.