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Book Review: Born a Crime - Trevor Noah


I took my time with this book. I've had a tough time buying this one because most book stores in Malaysia did not carry it and getting it online from MPH or Popular Bookstore during the MCO lockdown was tough. And besides, with the pandemic, I wasn't in the mood to read anything somber like...you know, Apartheid. 

But I found it on BookDepository and placed it in my Wish List - like I always do with books I intend to read one day

When I finally got the book, I took my time. 

You see, all I know about Trevor Noah came from the show he hosts, the one we see on YouTube and Instagram. After reading his Wikipedia, I found out about his childhood of living through the end-stage of Apartheid and his mom's near death experience. 

THEN, I had to read the book. 

Racism is the silent elephant in a small room in a country like Malaysia. We don't talk about it, we don't shy away from it, we don't deny it, we don't (really) fight it. So, in a lot of ways, I think we, the children of Malaysia, lived through a very controlled form of the same situation. Only more harmoniously and less violently. 

But still, none of us were born outlaws. Our parents were not criminals and we didn't have to walk on different sides of the street from our parents. That's something people in South Africa had to do for a while. 

I loved his honest accounts of both the privileges and disadvantages of being born half-white half-black. Him relating how he fit everywhere and yet nowhere resonated with me because I am also of mixed parentage. 

Only the disparity in his situation was much more evident. It being from Trevor Noah, I expected a few laughs, of course.

The way he depicted the battles he fought from inside out and outside in really hit a few chords. It must have been hard living as a kid through such an era. 

It's tough for a kid not to know who genuinely liked who he was or for what he represented. 

He tells his story through brutal honestly and dry humor. The petty crimes, hopelessness, and especially the strength shown by his single mother were all powerfully moving. 

His mother did a splendid job whopping Trevor Noah into shape, to be the man that he is today. She may have been wild as weed for a woman born in South Africa but her hippiness really paid off. 

He said his mom was his partner in crime, that they were in this together, him and her against the world - I believe this to be true. 

When he told of how his family felt helpless whenever his mom was abused, I felt upset and exasperated. While his mother continued to believe Jesus to be her health insurance (which certainly turned out to be true in the end), better policing would have prevented many more of such instances. 

His mother is the true Heroine in this autobiography. Trevor Noah turned out to be the gem emerging from the rugged terrains of a biased system, racial discord, and the rugged terrains of poverty. 

And I will remember the story about Hitler for a long time to come. LOL

Comments

Brian saidā€¦
Nicely done, Marsha. I'll follow your blog, read more posts, stuff like that.

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