I didn’t so much have a problem with the non-linear aspect, but occasionally there were repetitive sections. Each chapter is a different essay, focusing on a different story or theme, and these essays are not in the book in any kind of chronological order. You separate people into groups and make them hate one another so you can run them all.īorn a Crime is told in a non-linear fashion. The genius of apartheid was convincing people who were the overwhelming majority to turn on each other. The horror and injustice of apartheid is felt throughout the book, especially as Trevor grows up and is forced to stay indoors. I’ve read and loved Cry, the Beloved Country by Alan Paton, but that read is more of a buildup to apartheid, and Born a Crime takes place during and after apartheid. I think this was the first book I’ve read that is set during and after apartheid in South Africa. In Born a Crime we see a bit of apartheid, but most of the book takes place after apartheid has ended. Trevor’s father is Swiss, and his mother is Xhosa. Born a Crime is Trevor Noah’s memoir about his life growing up in Johannesburg, South Africa. *** this post contains affiliate links *** My Copy Came From: I borrowed the hardback from my local library. His stories weave together to form a moving and searingly funny portrait of a boy making his way through a damaged world in a dangerous time, armed only with a keen sense of humor and a mother’s unconventional, unconditional love. Whether subsisting on caterpillars for dinner during hard times, being thrown from a moving car during an attempted kidnapping, or just trying to survive the life-and-death pitfalls of dating in high school, Trevor illuminates his curious world with an incisive wit and unflinching honesty. The eighteen personal essays collected here are by turns hilarious, dramatic, and deeply affecting. It is also the story of that young man’s relationship with his fearless, rebellious, and fervently religious mother-his teammate, a woman determined to save her son from the cycle of poverty, violence, and abuse that would ultimately threaten her own life. Finally liberated by the end of South Africa’s tyrannical white rule, Trevor and his mother set forth on a grand adventure, living openly and freely and embracing the opportunities won by a centuries-long struggle.īorn a Crime is the story of a mischievous young boy who grows into a restless young man as he struggles to find himself in a world where he was never supposed to exist. Living proof of his parents’ indiscretion, Trevor was kept mostly indoors for the earliest years of his life, bound by the extreme and often absurd measures his mother took to hide him from a government that could, at any moment, steal him away. Trevor was born to a white Swiss father and a black Xhosa mother at a time when such a union was punishable by five years in prison. Trevor Noah’s unlikely path from apartheid South Africa to the desk of The Daily Show began with a criminal act: his birth. Official Synopsis from Goodreads: The compelling, inspiring, and comically sublime New York Times bestseller about one man’s coming-of-age, set during the twilight of apartheid and the tumultuous days of freedom that followed.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |