book review #7 born a crime
- Trevor noah
Happy World Book Day! For those of us in Japan, the day is coming towards an end but I hope you all took a smidge of your time today to pick up a book and read :) I spent all morning today reading with the windows open all the way up. Because it’s a symbolic day to celebrate the power of literature, I wanted to share a review on a book that I genuinely enjoyed reading and would recommend to anyone regardless of your preferred genre.
Born a Crime is an unfiltered memoir of Noah’s experience growing up in South Africa during the apartheid. This book was a big eye opener since I had very little background info on what apartheid was and how it affected the way people of color lived. Having been born to a Swiss father and African Xhosa woman, Noah shares his childhood stories of going through bullying at school, navigating his youth in the midst of racial division, and growing up with a fearless mother that taught him to stand firm of his beliefs no matter how he was treated by his surroundings.
The book talks us through various episodes in detail of his life in South Africa; from running around his neighborhood to avoid charges of stealing, to seeing his own mother being shot with a gun in front of him, to growing up having to pretend that his actual parents were not his own in the public eye. This is just a few of many but I can’t begin to imagine any of these even being a possibility that could have happened in my life. To think that he had to live in fear of being taken away by his family left me heartbroken and reading this book felt like I was reliving most of his childhood experiences. He goes through a lot that most of us are fortunate enough to not have, but I saw the strong and supportive presence of his mother in his life , which provides a small reassurance while going though his mildly outrageous life events. What makes this book worth the read is that he writes his captivating stories of hardships he faced with an added twang of his humor and charm, which left me feeling warm yet bittersweet at various points in the book.
This is a book everyone should read at least once in their lifetime; you’ll get a vivid picture of what it was like to grow up in a society with absurd regulations and the consequences people faced because of it. It’s a lot of info to take in with one read but it’s both highly insightful and enjoyable so I hope you decide to have a go at it :) I think I’d go back to it again myself real soon.
Happy Friday and hope to hear what you’re reading in the comments below :)
