It remains to be seen whether Daily Show host Trevor Noah, the South African comic unexpectedly tapped in 2015 to replace the revered Jon Stewart, will prove adept at wringing satirical humor out of a reality that feels to many like dark satire. While during his early months in the hosting chair some complained that, as an outsider, Noah didn't evince Stewart's impassioned outrage at American political culture, his memoir, the rollicking yet tender Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood, provides solid indication that Noah's is a necessary voice for these times. In addition to that, it's a great read. The book comprises eighteen autobiographical chapters, each prefaced by a short piece explaining a relevant element of South Africa's history of apartheid. Many of the chapters center on his relationship with his fearless and devout black Xhosa mother, who risked a prison term of up to five years by having a child with Noah's white father, a Swiss expat. Noah was indeed "born a crime," and for the first five years of his life, until apartheid fell, he was mostly kept indoors, whether with his mother in her Johannesburg apartment or with his maternal grandmother in her Soweto township, to minimize the risk that the government would take him away. "We had a very Tom and Jerry relationship, me and my mom," writes Noah, a vivid storyteller who fondly recalls epic chases through the neighborhood as his mother sought to punish him for all manner of mischief and as he sought to escape a beating. As he grew fast enough to outrun her, she took to yelling "thief" to get bystanders involved in the pursuit. "In South Africa, nobody gets involved in other people's business, unless it's mob justice, and then everybody wants in," Noah quips. His writing about his mother is loving and bighearted, especially as she becomes involved in an abusive relationship that culminates in a truly shocking outburst of violence that Noah's mother, miraculously, survives. Throughout the memoir, Noah slyly illuminates the absurdities of a society built on racial hierarchy. When the light-skinned child was with his mother's extended family in the township, he was treated as white. Though he was the least well behaved of all the children, he was never beaten by his grandmother as his cousins were. "A black child, you hit them and they stay black," she told his mother. "Trevor, when you hit him he turns blue and green and yellow and red. I've never seen those colors before. I'm scared I'm going to break him. I don't want to kill a white person." While he's somewhat abashed to admit it now, Noah reveled in his special treatment. "My own family basically did what the American justice system does: I was given more lenient treatment than the black kids," he reports. "Growing up the way I did, I learned how easy it is for white people to get comfortable with a system that awards them all the perks." But when Noah's mother, who worked as a secretary, was eventually able to buy a home in the suburbs, Noah went from being "the only white kid in the black township" to being "the only black kid in the white suburb." And although biracial, he was excluded from South Africa's mixed-race "colored" population, an ethnic group that traces its history back to the seventeenth century, to the sexual unions of Dutch colonists and African natives. He didn't quite belong anywhere, and growing up, he had few friends. The book, focusing on Noah's boyhood, doesn't describe his decision to pursue comedy, but one can imagine that a childhood spent as a perpetual outsider, observing group dynamics to determine where he might fit in, has served Noah well in his chosen profession. There were so many times, he recalls, when he "had to be a chameleon, navigate between groups, explain who I was." He survived it (and writes about it) well; expect him, in the coming months and years, to help explain us to ourselves. Barbara Spindel has covered books for Time Out New York, Newsweek.com, Details, and Spin. She holds a Ph.D. in American Studies. Reviewer: Barbara Spindel
2016-09-22The host of The Daily Show reflects on his tumultuous South African childhood.In a gritty memoir, Noah relates his harsh experiences growing up during the final years of apartheid and the chaotic and racially charged conflicts that would continue to undermine the newly won freedom that was established in its aftermath. His story unfolds through a series of loosely assembled essays that touch on his home life and school environment and later expand outward to various cities and neighborhoods and his encounters with petty crime and confrontations with domestic violence. Throughout, the author documents the evolving yet continually challenging race relations among blacks, whites, and coloreds. Noah was born the son of a white Swiss-German father and a devoutly Christian black Xhosa mother who purposely chose to have a child through a mixed relationship, with full understanding of the legal ramifications established under the Immorality Act of 1927, which banned illicit carnal relations between a native woman and a European male. Noahs mother proved to be the dominant, remarkable force throughout his life, constantly striving to instill deep values of education, religion, and freedom as she struggled with her own desire for independence. Perhaps even more amazing is the fact that my mother started her little project, me, at a time when she could not have known that apartheid would end, writes the author. There was no reason to think it would end; it had seen generations come and go. I was nearly six when Mandela was released, ten before democracy finally came, yet she was preparing me to live a life of freedom long before we knew freedom would exist. On the whole, though studded with insight and provocative social criticism, Noahs material doesnt feel fully digested. As an accomplished adult humorist looking back to his childhood self, the attempt to inject a humorous tone into these grim proceedings frequently hits an awkward note. A somewhat disjointed narrative with flashes of brilliant storytelling and acute observations on South African culture.
Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood free 12
IT'S TREVOR NOAH: BORN A CRIME: STORIES FROM A SOUTH AFRICAN CHILDHOOD is the adaptation for young readers of comedian Trevor Noah's 2016 memoir Born a Crime. Noah describes growing up as an outsider because he's of mixed race, born at a time when marriage or relations between blacks and whites was illegal in South Africa. Noah was a mischievous kid, and his antics are entertaining, even as his life and observations reveal so much that was wrong in his world of poverty, racism, injustice, and abuse. Noah regales readers with stories of youthful misadventures, from playing with matches to bad first dates to petty crimes, sometimes with amusing results and occasionally with disastrous ones. Through his own experience, Noah gives readers a look at family life, education, gender roles, and religion in 1980s and '90s South Africa. 2ff7e9595c
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