For our February book club, we read Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood, by Trevor Noah. We know the books we will read three months in advance, so I’ve had it for a while. The cover was not appealing to me. I’m not sure why; it just wasn’t. Well, this is one instance where there is truth to the saying, “you can’t judge a book by its cover.” This is an excellent book, and I highly recommend it. Here’s my review.
Trevor Noah is an excellent writer. He was first a stand-up comedian, and he shares stories from his childhood in many of his gigs. I watched a few of his shows, and I do not believe he used a ghost writer because he is very articulate. He’s an intelligent young man. He speaks multiple languages. He isn’t the kind of comedian like Jim Gaffigan or Jerry Seinfeld, where you laugh at punch lines which hit you every thirty seconds. He is more of a story teller, with humor intertwined with some rich history from his childhood as well as apartheid. It’s informative, educational as well as laughable.
The first page you read will tell you he was born a crime because it was illegal for blacks and whites to have sex during apartheid. They literally would be sent to prison for having relationships. His mother was a bit of a rebel, and she didn’t play by all the rules. She was black and his father was white, so Trevor is “colored.” I was interested in reading on, as I wanted to learn more about apartheid, the diversity that is evident throughout the book, and how he matriculated these years. Born a Crime is filled with information about what it was like living during apartheid, and a life of “freedom” after Nelson Mandela was released (which had its own complications).
The stories he tells about having to hide from the public, being on the outside of every racial group, having childhood sweethearts and losing love because of the color of his skin, never having any friends, were heart wrenching. Yet, he had a way of telling the stories that made you laugh. He managed to find humor in every challenging life situation, and didn’t let his circumstances push him down. This spirit came from his mom.
Trevor’s mother sounds like quite a lady. I already said she was a rebel, and she fought the traditional expectations of a black woman in South Africa. She had a way of (literally) beating sense into her son, talking to him in a way that made him listen, and developing him into the man he has become. Her advice was crude and sometimes made my eyebrows raise, but it spoke to Trevor and stuck with him as life lessons. Her commitment to Jesus was unmatchable. She would drag him to church or Bible studies several times a week; her faith in Christ saved her life. I wonder what my group members will think of this, as they often don’t like books that have a strong biblical base.
Trevor’s mom became independent and took care of finances, raising her son as a single mother. But she did make some poor life choices which deeply impacted Trevor, like marrying Abel who was a violent alcoholic. Her financial independence was put in jeopardy as he kept drinking away their earnings. This made me so mad. “Just leave him!” we would say.
Yet, I also understand the mentality of abused women. The learned helplessness. Domestic violence is so hard to comprehend even with my mental health background. The belief it is better to stay, because he will kill you if you do leave, and after hearing how things were handled by the “good ol’ boys” police in South Africa, it’s no wonder she had difficulty leaving. I wanted to wrap my arms around her and take her away from him. But she wouldn’t have wanted that. She’s an independent woman.
I didn’t care for the language. There were lots of “F” bombs and “sh*t” as well as other curse words, even though they were committed to a Christian way of life. After living in Australia, I realize cursing is viewed differently in other countries. So, I gave him a pass on this. However, I was also able to understand some of his terminology because of living down under (e.g. “tuck shop” and “jumper”). His friends needed a bit more character development, I thought. He knows them well, and he can tell stories about them, but it was difficult keeping up with who was who at times. I enjoyed reading about “The Cheese Boys,” and wondered if this is where the term “Big Cheese” in reference to our bosses came from.
I loved the stories, but I had a little trouble keeping track of where he was in the course of his life. His writing style is a bit like a stand-up comedy act. Story after story without a lot of chronological organization. If he at least started each new story with “when I was nine,” or something similar, I might not have had so much trouble keeping up. Regardless, the stories were captivating, and the introduction to each chapter with a bit of historical reference was intriguing as well. I read the book and also read some of the stories to my husband, and he said he wants to read the whole book. They were that good. Some stories are more serious. Others were hilarious (the poop in the kitchen was by far the funniest of all stories). Some were a mixture of both, helping me to also better understand how some folks simply don’t know who Hitler was, and what all he did. That kind of blew my mind, but it did make sense to me culturally.
It was a great book about coming of age, culture, diversity, South Africa and apartheid. I learned a bit of history I never really studied before. I would rate the book an 8.5.
We’re meeting in two weeks to discuss it. After we meet, I’ll include what my book club had to say about Born a Crime…
Updated February 13th. Here’s what my book club had to say about this book.
Ten of us gathered to discuss our February book, Born A Crime by Trevor Noah.
We had two new members show up, so a BIG welcome to them. This book surprised a lot of us with a young comedian writing a book about growing up in South Africa, and boy were we surprised how well written and also learned a lot. We didn’t realize it was a crime to become pregnant by a white man in South Africa. We didn’t realize the atrocities of living with Apartheid……no electricity, no water, different neighborhoods that were cut off from each other. Trevor describes it was worse than the Holocaust. Despite all these terrible things, we laughed a lot. His friend called “Hitler”; his experience in jail and starting to like it since it was 3 meals a day and a bed; his beautiful date who turns out doesn’t know his language, the struggles of being “colored” and not knowing where to fit in, etc. We all thought his mother Patricia was a force and admired her strength and teaching Trevor how to speak in different tribal languages and how he used this to his benefit of survival. We were in awe how she survived getting shot it the head by her abusive husband and surviving that. Our conversation covered so many topics that Trevor pointed out in this novel. Several people didn’t like how he jumped around a lot and didn’t flow in chronological order. We rated the book 8.4.
À la prochaine…hasta la próxima vez…until next time!
