Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood by Trevor Noah - REVIEW

Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood by Trevor Noah is an autobiographical account of a mixed child’s experience of growing up in South Africa. His situation isn’t the most ideal because as the title suggests, him being born mixed was a crime at the time. Despite that, you see how strong Trevor and his mother are together at each other’s side throughout the book and you see how unique his childhood was like. Immediately as you launch into the book, you are able to pick up on Trevor’s humorous way of retelling some of the most absurd and downright funny parts of his childhood. At the same time, you connect with his thoughts as he also recounts some of the unfortunate things he had to experience at such a young age. The humor laced throughout the book at times made me feel like I was reading a Percy Jackson book. Despite there being some rough points, as he narrates you can sense how he doesn’t take himself so serious all the time and is able to make some situations more light hearted than they actually were.

The writing posed no challenge at all as you read this. It’s something people of all ages can enjoy. You see how Trevor has this magical story like quality of his retellings as he sets up the scenes for us to help us understand what’s going on. Despite neither being from South Africa nor ever having visited the country, I had no difficulty whatsoever being able to conjure up images in my head of the settings.

This book is much more than just getting a personal look into the life of what it's like being mixed. You also read about Trevor’s close relationship with his mother, social constructs in South Africa, and even his unique sense of entrepreneurship. Overall, I give the book five stars.