For fans of The Daily Show and Noah's other standup work, this book is a unique look into South Africa of the 80s and 90s. Even though I read this awhile ago, there are quotes and anecdotes that still live on in my brain. Noah has talent for weaving stories, and I deeply enjoyed his remembrances of his mother. There are clips of the darker side of this time period, but each chapter is mostly humorous. Recommended for all memoir readers.

This book was amazing!

Trevor Noah wrote a memoir that pairs humor with historical and personal insight so well. Noah's stories of how he grew up in a South Africa that was ravaged by Apartheid and had to be hidden away was heartwarming and devastating at the same time. Likewise, watching Noah talk about the shenanigans he got into as a kid and teenager had me clutching my side laughing. The audiobook for this book was also fantastic since Noah is exceptional at doing impersonations.

I can see this book being one I reread for years to come just as a pick me up. It was educational and entertaining while also being heartwarming and devastating in some parts. Give this to anyone who needs a good laugh, is curious about South African history, and wants to learn to empathize better. This is hands down the best celebrity or comedic memoir I've ever read.

A funny and moving account by Daily Show host Trevor Noah. Born in Apartheid South Africa, Noah was, indeed, born a crime, a product of a Black African mother and a white Dutch father. (Miscegenation was illegal at at that time). Raised by two loving women, his mother and his grandmother, Noah eventually rose to worldwide acclaim as a comedian and television host.

Trevor Noah is the host of Comedy Central's The Daily Show. I don't watch The Daily Show, but I listen to the podcast version pretty regularly. I had heard a lot of good things about Born A Crime, but waited until we had a road trip to read it. I should not have waited so long.

In Born A Crime, Trevor Noah speaks with honesty about what it was like to be born under apartheid in South Africa. Trevor was born to a black mother and a white father, and in 1984 South Africa, that was illegal. Trevor also speaks, with blatant admiration, about his mother's strength. As a black woman having a son of mix race put her (and Trevor) in great jeopardy. He speaks about how when he used to go in public with his mother they would have to take somebody else with them and Trevor would have to pretend that other woman was his mother. Trevor was still pretty young when apartheid ended, but the effects of it lasted for years. Eventually, his mother married another man and had two more children, but his stepdad was a violent man and the ramifications of that marriage were longlasting. In fact, he even shot his mother in the head in a situation that was so unbelievable it was like something out of a movie.

Born A Crime is more than just an autobiography. It is an insightful and honest look at race relations in this world. So many of Trevor Noah's observations were so profound that I repeated them out loud.

“Language, even more than color, defines who you are to people.”
Ooof. The truth of that statement is so profound. Especially today. In the United States.


“Love is a creative act. When you love someone, you create a world for them.”
His story is a hard-hitting, emotional story. How can it not be? But he infuses his intelligent humor in such a way that you can't help but laugh out loud. A lot Especially when he is so honest about being "a naughty little shit." It reminded me of stories that my husband has told me about his own childhood.

Bottom Line - Forget that Trevor Noah is one of the most famous comedians in the world. Even if he had been an unknown person Born A Crime is such a good book that it would have made him wildly famous. It is that good.

Details:

Born A Crime by Trevor Noah
On Instagram
Pages: 304
Publisher: Spiegel and Grau
Publication Date: 2/12/19
Buy it Here!

“I don’t regret anything I’ve ever done in life, any choice that I’ve made. But I’m consumed with regret for the things I didn’t do, the choices I didn’t make, the things I didn’t say. We spend so much time being afraid of failure, afraid of rejection. But regret is the thing we should fear most. Failure is an answer. Rejection is an answer. Regret is an eternal question you will never have the answer to. “What if…” “If only…” “I wonder what would have…” You will never, never know, and it will haunt you for the rest of your days.”


I keep recommending this to friends and strangers.


I am planning to reread this soon, so I thought of writing a short review about it (because it deserves all kind of praise and hype)

This book is IMPORTANT. Trevor Noah does an amazing job of telling the story of his life, his mom, his people, and humanity as a whole.

I love a book that makes me think and talk. And in this book, I felt like I am in an important conversation with a friend.

The stories are beautifully written. Born a Crime tackles racism, language, abuse, dreams, poverty, and more. It was funny, very informative, and be ready to shed some tears. This book is real, and it uniquely captures different meanings of life and being.

I can still vividly recall passages of this book, which is always a good sign of a great book.

Beautiful and horrifying accounts. Trevor Noah didn't let his upbringing hold him back. from being successful. I think this is a great read for young readers who are looking to pave their way and not let upbringing prevent them from being successful. It's truly inspiring.

Trevor Noah is such a huge delight. Not only did he write meaningfully, and with heart, but he also writes with such comedic tones you can't help but laugh.

Wow. Just wow. What an amazing life this guy has lived, and he's still so young. Not only is his story extraordinary, but he weaves the tale well.

This review is in exchange for a free e-galley from netgalley.com.

Trevor Noah is a funny guy. But he writes about violence, abuse, apartheid, racial profiling wit irony and his story is very readable. Interspersed with snippets on the history of Apartheid, Noah chronicles his life from a young boy to when he is starting his career as a comedian. Although some would argue he started his career as a young boy. My favorite excerpt is early on, when he writes about going to white church, black church and colored church. An interesting reflection, sure to leave an opening for a sequel.

Copy provided by the Publisher and NetGalley

Excellent book, funny and poignant, and if you are able to listen to it on audiobook do yourself a favor and definitely go that route!

I liked this a lot but it just ended. There is so much more I wanted to know and was surprised that this didn't cover anything in Noah's life post-South Africa. Still, a simultaneously fascinating and funny read. For anyone who grew up during the Apartheid years, we knew a lot of the basic history but it was impossible to have a true sense of what it was like living in South Africa during those long years. This gives incredible insight and paints a picture of a world that, thankfully, is gone but not in the too distant past.

Thanks to Netgalley for my ARC of this book. It is a well-written and thought provoking memoir. Trevor Noah - the not so new host of The Daily Show shares his story in an honest and engaging manner. I strongly recommend this book.

These stories, beautifully written, are set in a world quite like our own but at the same time utterly different. Trevor made me laugh, cry (his story made me miss my homeland SouthAfrica) - In Born a Crime, Trevor Noah takes us on a journey from his childhood being born a crime in apartheid South Africa. Trevor was born to a white Swiss father and a black Xhosa mother at a time when such a union was punishable by five years in prison. This memoir is the story of a mischievous young boy who grows into a restless young man as he struggles to find himself in a world where he was never supposed to exist.

Loved, loved, loved this book! Loved everything about it. I am a huge fan of Trevor Noah and appreciated being given the opportunity to glimpse into his childhood and his experiences growing up as a mixed-race child in South Africa during the last days of apartheid.

Noah is as funny and intelligent on paper as he is as a TV show host. He has the rare gift of approaching difficult subjects in a humorous yet thoughtful way. It is hard to imagine what it must be like to grow up knowing that you don't quite fit anywhere as a result of having a black mother and a white father. Yet Noah was fortunate enough to be raised by strong women who taught him to never give up. The poverty and crime he was surrounded by as a child made him resilient and forced him to find his own ways.

I learned a great deal from this book about South Africa and apartheid, about inequality and discrimination, and about coming up on top despite having all the odds against you.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with a copy of this fantastic book!

Born a Crime
By Trevor Noah

I was not really familiar with Trevor Noah when this book became available on NetGalley, but the title stood out. Later, when it was still on my to-read pile, I got a "you should read this" note from my sister-in-law through Goodreads. Since this was unusual, I moved it to the top of my list.

I was at the University of Maryland during the height of the Anti-Apartheid protests, and I was a (very small!) part of the protests outside the South African embassy in DC. Nevertheless, my concept of life in South Africa was very limited. Noah's essays provide a unique perspective of a life on the fringes of so many different cultures. They are at turns heartbreaking and hilarious, for every outrageous thing Noah does there is an equally outlandish story about his mother. Mother and son are almost, as they say, two sides of the same coin. I agree with Noah when he describes the book as a love letter to his mother, it is all that and so much more. A must read, sure to move and inspire.




For Goodreads:

Why I picked it — It sounded like a compelling story, and I love memoirs.
Reminded me of… nothing else I've read that's non-fiction, really. I guess every person's story is unique, but this was truly original.
For my full review — click here

An incredible memoir that puts a face on the harsh realities of South African apartheid, poverty and abuse. Trevor Noah's story is both tragic and hopeful and a mesmerizing read.

Trevor Noah's memoir of growing up is unique in that he belonged in every and no racial category in apartheid-era South Africa. Fitting in (or not) with the white kids, the black kids, and the colored kids gave him a sociological perspective on each of the cultures. His sense of humor about the darker (no pun intended) aspects of his world is balanced with real, honest affection for his family (especially his mother) and his home country.

Aside from a couple of interviews with the author, I realized I knew very little about the new host of The Daily Show, despite very much liking his work. I was therefore very intrigued when this book was announced.

As it turns out, Born a Crime is an excellent memoir. It is alternately endearing, enlightening, shocking, moving and inspiring. Noah’s narration is superb throughout (I alternated between the audiobook and the eARC I received from the publisher). His humour, compassion and honesty come through in every chapter.

His life has certainly been interesting, but also difficult, frustrating and painful. His memories of South Africa are recounted in an engaging manner, sprinkled with humour. He is unsparing when describing how much of a terror he was as a child, but equally clear about the incredible job his mother did of bringing him up. The story of his stepfather is a gut-punch (I won’t spoil it).

Informative, educational, and ultimately uplifting. Born a Crime is one of my favourite books from last year. I certainly hope Noah writes more books.

Highly recommended.

This entertainer won the MTV Movie award this weekend for best Host. His sparkling personality comes across in his book as well and it was really a worthwhile read last night. Recommended!

This is a fascinating read, both of one person and one family's life and of an entire culture.

Many Americans have come to know Trevor Noah through his work on The Daily Show. In Born a Crime, we can see much more; that Noah's birth actually was a crime in apartheid-era South Africa; that his black Xhosa mother risked imprisonment and expulsion from Johannesburg back to her homeland of Soweto if Trevor's existence were discovered. So Trevor lived a very careful life as a child, rarely seeing his father at times. Subversion was a well-played life game. If Trevor's existence had been discovered he would have been taken away to an institution for mulattoes or coloreds, for labeling was an apartheid pastime.

This is the story of one life but also of a country with severe identity issues. And Noah personifies so many of the issues at the forefront of South African life during his lifetime. He was never an acceptable person to many because he wasn't black or white and not accepting of the colored label because he self-identified as black. He didn't know where he fit in, didn't look like his black mother and her family and not like his father. He did not feel he fit the colored label that sometimes included Chinese or Japanese (who at other times were considered white). And he wasn't black enough to be acceptable by many blacks outside his family. The end of apartheid changed all of this legally but not identity-wise for a boy trying to fit in among his school mates, etc.

Trevor seems to have been an intelligent child and teen who lived on being funny, acting outrageous at times. Of course nothing about his early life computes for someone not raised under apartheid and then a country trying to find itself after throwing off apartheid and developing new systems. He writes of so many moments that not only bring his life alive for the reader, but bring the reality of life in South Africa for non-whites more into focus. I believed I knew a bit about South Africa's recent history and the end of apartheid. This book has shown me that I know little.

I thank Trevor Noah for sharing his story with us, for all of the personal and South African societal detail it provides, that closer look it is important to take.

One note on the narrative itself. It does not read in a continuous arc time-wise, and you will find time shifts occurring between what are essentially more separate essays than sequential chapters of his life. Occasionally I found this slightly bothersome but probably wouldn't have had I known up front this was the structure. However Noah centers you throughout with his wit and his much-loved mother.

A copy of this book was provided by the publisher through NetGalley in return for an honest review.