Review: Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood

Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood by Trevor Noah
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

3.5 I think I must be broken. While I enjoyed this book, I didn't love it like everyone else I know who has read it did.

I don't watch late night TV and until a couple of summers ago, I had never even heard the name Trevor Noah. Then during a family reunion, both my mother and my brother said I had to read this book. That got my attention - my mother and my brother actually agreeing on something?! This must be worth looking into! And then it came up that half my book club had read and loved the book so that made it a no-brainer for this year's "Celebrity Autobiography" selection.

After starting the book, I watched some clips on YouTube to get a better feel for who Trevor is and I liked what I saw. He's funny, he's intelligent, he's got an adorable accent and he's not hard to look at. He's fantastic when it comes to doing impressions of others. That did help with reading the book as I find it usually does. The book is interesting - don't get me wrong; he has had quite the life and overcame a lot to make it to where he is today as he strove to learn who he is as a mixed race person who never quite fit in with either race.

There were parts of the book that I found amusing and parts I found horribly sad, particularly his not being allowed to know his father because his being mixed race was against the law. His mother sounds like an amazing woman and the amount of love and respect he feels for her jumped off the pages. And there were parts I found incredibly funny, like when he accidentally burnt down someone's house. (My best friend read this at the same time I did and there was one part where he had tears in his eyes because he was laughing so hard). He is a good storyteller, though I did struggle a bit with the way the book jumped around to various points in his life.

The book did lead me to watch his comedy specials on Netflix as well as a couple of clips here and there and I am sure I will continue to do so now that he's on my radar as I do find him enjoyable. I'm definitely a fan now! So I don't know what it is about the book that it didn't resonate with me the same way it has for those around me.



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