i just finished reading ‘Born a Crime’ by Trevor Noah.

Aaand i’m in two minds… there is something i can’t quite put my finger on – whether the book feels lazy or rushed or perhaps ghost written from some audio tapes Trevor made… but it feels like something of him is missing.

It certainly is not meant as a comedy book – although there are some good laughs [and many of those i got by reading certain passages with his accent in my mind – Trevor reading Trevor’s book would be a lot more fun i think]. And it is not quite meant as a magnifying glass into South Africa’s race and poverty situations, although there is a lot of the book that deals with that. So maybe that is the problem – the book doesn’t quite seem to know what it is.

Trevor Noah Quote

Having said all that though, it was a good read and i would recommend it. The four pages with corners bent over tell me that at least four times it said something that i wanted to go back to. And all of those were, i believe, insights into South Africa. But also there is a hecticness to the context of his growing up [lack of father and then later an abusive stepfather] that is helpful for especially white South Africans to read.

i think the book could have been more accurately titled, ‘Committing Crimes’ as there seems to be a lot more story about Trevor’s transgressions of the law growing up [pirating and selling cds, buying stolen equipment, shoplifting, borrowing/stealing cars etc] than on the race dynamics that the title suggests. And therein lies some of the uncomfortability. The book is not written with a conscience. So all the crimes are brushed off with a kind of ‘i was a kid’ mentality and “Byegones!”

The hardest story to read was one where Trevor and a friend, Teddy, were shoplifting alcoholic chocolates and were chased by mall security. Trevor escapes and his friend is caught, refuses to rat on him and goes to prison. The conclusion of that story is the whole focus on will they catch Trevor or not. They don’t and yet he doesn’t give any kind of epilogue comment on his friend who was sent off to prison. It left me wondering, “Do you even care about your friend who took a hit for you? Do you feel bad at all?” But no commentary at all. That felt a little weird and disconnected.

Trevor noah Quote

‘One thing I do know about my dad is that he hates racism and homogeneity more than anything, and not because of any feelings of self-righteousness or moral superiority. He has just never understood how white people could be racist in South Africa. ‘Africa is full of black people,’ he would say, ‘so why would you come all the way to Africa if you hate black people? If you hate black people so much, why would you move into their house?’ To him it’s insane.’

i will write another post with the other three page highlights which jumped out at me, but suffice it to say, while this won’t transform your life or have you ROFLing your AO, Born a Crime is still a good read [spoiler: gets a little hectic in the last chapter, yo!] and a worthwhile one.

Proud of our Trevor. But hope his next book has more of his heart and his humour.

[For an excerpt that i found particularly helpful looking at fish-giving, click here]