He could only dream what he could imagine: a "Born a Crime" review
Born to a Black mother and white father, Trevor Noah entered the world a crime against South Africa. Despite a Black majority in the country, the white minority found a way to drive a wedge between the Xhosa and Zulu tribes by letting the hate fester between them. Once apartheid fell, chaos erupted. Black people hated each other, white people reigned supreme, and there were outliers who didn’t really fit in anywhere. Like Noah, these people were colored, half-Black and half-white, a violation of the clause of apartheid that stated no Black and white person should make a child. But even with his strenuous life, Noah found a way to survive thanks to the lessons he learned from whatever life threw at him and the tough love of his fierce mother, a woman whose beliefs and heart never wavered.
Born a Crime was my first introduction to Trevor Noah. I had heard of him before but had never given myself the opportunity to look into his work. Now that I have, I’m incredibly interested to watch his comedy special and more clips from his show because I like the sense of humor that drives this book forward. Despite the serious subject matter, Noah manages to keep things light in a way that never feels offensive. Since he’s personally gone through all the horrors of post-apartheid South Africa, his insider perspective warrants jokes to alleviate the personal struggles of living in a two-room house with his mom, grandmother, and great-grandmother at a young age. They also show his comedian chops. How else would the audience have gotten three paragraphs devoted to the pleasures of pooping?
Additionally, Noah has such a descriptive writing style that really captures all the angles of what he’s talking about. I was slightly taken aback by this because I wasn’t expecting the intricacies of apartheid, his friendships, and the relationships he shared with his family and short-lived girlfriends. I guess I always have the thought that celebrity books don’t need to be well-written, but Noah didn’t skimp on the quality here. Every anecdote is flush with details, whether those include Noah’s emotions, context, or the poverty experienced that was a fact of life for him and his family. I was stunned by the intensity of whatever Noah was going through, the history of apartheid and racism, and the dinners where all Noah and his mother had to eat were bones with tiny patches of meat on them. All of those experiences felt real to me, which I believe was Noah’s intent. He wanted to show the realities of how awful life was in South Africa post-apartheid, and that reality stuck with me while I was reading and made me realize how lucky I’ve been to live my life. It was very humbling.
Lastly, I found the bouncing around between time of the narratives clever. It could be confusing to some readers, but I liked that we got to explore new moments in each chapter. Noah made sure switches between getting a non-English-speaking date to the prom unknowingly and dance crew adventures with a guy named Hitler felt natural because he would always make sure the audience knew who everyone was and would hint at what was to come, especially when it came to his mother’s abusive boyfriend Abel. This kept my interest and will hopefully do the same to others as they keep flipping the pages to see where Noah’s life takes them.
Some negatives I have with Born a Crime come with the preambles to the chapters. While they did have ties to the morals of each chapter, I generally didn’t find them the most interesting. I also felt that some stories ran a little long, excluding the excellent final chapter about Abel’s domestic abuse. Even with Noah’s excellent attention to detail in regards to his family’s history, I lost interest because I was more interested in the now, why all of that context mattered in the present of the chapter.
But at the end of the day, Born a Crime was an incredibly strong memoir, and I’m glad I read it. Trevor Noah’s strong writing, intricate detail, and easy transitioning between moments made his story invigorating and rewarding. Parts were horrifying, parts were hilarious, and other parts were heartbreaking. Yet all of it was worthwhile, educational, and important. This is a must read for Trevor Noah fans and those wanting an introduction into how he operates. It’s an experience no one will forget.