I really could not avoid reading this book. Being at Syracuse University where Trevor Noah is one of the main actors of support for diversity (they hired him or he is volunteering or some combination), every student receives a free edition of his book “Born a Crime” (his birth was crime back then, literally). Then, when I was in South Africa, I knew I had to read the book when I am back. So I did. Having seen the country and its unique role in world history from first hand helped me fill in the missing parts of my imagination of the stories he tells in his book. When he talks about townships and describes them as South African style ghettos, I don’t have to make them up, because I have seen them. When he describes the different races and skin colours, black, coloured, white, Zulu, Xhosa and so on I don’t have to imagine the people, because I have seen them. When he talks about the rich people in South Africa and how they don’t care about the rest of the people and hide behind walls with electrical fences, I don’t need to come up with a fictions picture, I have been, I have talked to them.
The book is definitely unique in many ways. You can feel the Trevor in it through and through. Correct punctuation is of secondary interest, getting Trevor’s style of story-telling across to the readers is primary concern, and it works. The book might as well be a transcript of a late night with some drinks in a bar with Trevor, his friends and most importantly his mom. His mom is the main character in this book really. She is a tough, tough lady and one has a feeling she might be one of a kind all of South Africa. She lived her life during apartheid as if apartheid did not really exist. She fought a system in the ways most people don’t even dare thinking about. It was risky, many, many times things went sideways. Like literally, for example when they jumped out of a bus with people that we’re going to kill them. They jumped out of the van sideways to escape.
It is just one of many great stories in this book that seems so unbelievable that, when they are combined with Trevor’s incredibly funny story-telling almost make them look made up. But they are not. There are about 17 chapters and all chapters built up to the last one. You could really just read the last chapter and it would explain a lot to you. But you would miss the great stories in the 16 chapters before. Stories about growing up in South Africa, apartheid, the townships ghettos, school in South Africa, his entrepreneurial spirit and his relationship to his Swiss father.
If you do make your way to South Africa, instead of taking the travel book, you might want to read Trevor’s book instead. You will probably learn as much about the country as in many other tour guides. The real South Africa by real people.
The book is definitely unique in many ways. You can feel the Trevor in it through and through. Correct punctuation is of secondary interest, getting Trevor’s style of story-telling across to the readers is primary concern, and it works. The book might as well be a transcript of a late night with some drinks in a bar with Trevor, his friends and most importantly his mom. His mom is the main character in this book really. She is a tough, tough lady and one has a feeling she might be one of a kind all of South Africa. She lived her life during apartheid as if apartheid did not really exist. She fought a system in the ways most people don’t even dare thinking about. It was risky, many, many times things went sideways. Like literally, for example when they jumped out of a bus with people that we’re going to kill them. They jumped out of the van sideways to escape.
It is just one of many great stories in this book that seems so unbelievable that, when they are combined with Trevor’s incredibly funny story-telling almost make them look made up. But they are not. There are about 17 chapters and all chapters built up to the last one. You could really just read the last chapter and it would explain a lot to you. But you would miss the great stories in the 16 chapters before. Stories about growing up in South Africa, apartheid, the townships ghettos, school in South Africa, his entrepreneurial spirit and his relationship to his Swiss father.
If you do make your way to South Africa, instead of taking the travel book, you might want to read Trevor’s book instead. You will probably learn as much about the country as in many other tour guides. The real South Africa by real people.
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