Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood

Stories from a South African Childhood

Paperback, 290 pages

English language

Published Jan. 14, 2019 by Spiegel & Grau.

ISBN:
978-0-399-58819-8
Copied ISBN!
OCLC Number:
1077955379

View on OpenLibrary

4 stars (2 reviews)

The compelling, inspiring, and comically sublime story of one man's coming-of-age, set during the twilight of apartheid and the tumultuous days of freedom that followed

25 editions

'Born a Crime' review

4 stars

Pretty good! My biggest complaint is in the editing -- the time periods kind of jump all over the place, and not in an interesting, Christopher Nolan sort of way. Also, the transition from being a street hood in Johannesburg to host of the Daily Show was kind of not present at all; I guess we have to wait for the sequel to see how Trevor gets out of the country!

That said, the ultimate message of "holy shit Trevor Noah lived through some real abject poverty and abuse as a kid" was great, and something that all privileged kids should read. Also, I learned a lot more about street-level life in South Africa during the transition to post-apartheid, which was interesting and terrible.