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You probably know Trevor Noah from Comedy Central's The Daily Show. Trevor
was a surprise pick to replace the indomitable Jon Stewart, but the South
African comedian has slowly come into his own and as you read his new memoir, Born a Crime: Stories From a SouthAfrican Childhood, you might start to think perhaps Jon Stewart had a very
good reason to pick Trevor as his successor.
Noah's story doesn't begin with
his birth. It goes back much further than that, when the white South
African government imposed the system known as apartheid on its
inhabitants, hitting black South Africans the hardest with repercussions that
continue to this day. Noah's mother, Patricia, rebelled against apartheid as
much as possible, becoming a secretary and then making the momentous decision
to have a child. But not just with anyone. Patricia turned to a
friend, Robert, who also just happened to be a white Swiss expat. In
South Africa at that time, it was not only illegal for Trevor's parents to have
a sexual relationship, it was punishable by several years in prison.
Trevor's very existence was, in fact, evidence of a crime.
Trevor describes his childhood
in a series of eighteen essays, that cover everything from his mother's
insistence they attend three different churches on Sundays to his laughably
inept attempts to woo girls in high school to the difficult and often turbulent
relationship Trevor had with his abusive stepfather. The essays are by
turns funny, moving, and heartbreaking. Throughout the essays, Trevor is
careful to not only describe the effect apartheid had on his family and other
black South Africans, but to multi-racial people labeled as
"Colored," Trevor also points out the often arbitrary rules of
apartheid that sometimes popped up seemingly overnight, with no other purpose
than to further divide South Africa's black and Colored peoples. He even
devotes several pages to how apartheid affected his father and other whites who
disagreed with apartheid.
If Trevor is the star of the
show, his mother, Patricia, often steals the spotlight as his determined supporting
actress. If nothing else in the world, Patricia is often the voice of
Trevor's conscience and the force nudging him to reach for something better.
The book is an easy read in
terms of readability. Trevor's voice shines through the page, and he makes
it sound like he's sitting at a table in a coffee shop regaling his friends
with the most meaningful moments of his childhood. His language does get
a bit salty at times, but it never comes off as gratuitous. Another thing
to keep in mind is the book doesn't move in a straight line from Trevor's birth
to his early 20s. It meanders a bit, based on the theme for that particular section of essays.
I had a really hard time putting it down. If you
like memoirs, this is definitely one to read.
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