one comedian’s coming of age
born a crime (book review)
If I wasn’t familiar with Trevor Noah from watching most of his stand-ups, my immediate impression of the title Born a Crime would have only been depressing. However, having been a huge fan of his ability to joke about almost anything, I must admit that I expected the book to be just as humorous as his sets if not more. I really enjoyed reading Born a crime! I think I laughed on almost every page of the book. It is filled with interesting historical details, funny anecdotes, engaging storytelling, and a special coming of age story. Trevor is just as engaging of an author as he is a comedian. In his book, he tells a very personal story of his upbringing, where he lived, the people around him, and the intersection of those elements with the socio-politics of apartheid South Africa. He writes very freely, his choice of words and prose always flowing with what he is writing about at any given time. He does not shy away from telling intimate stories despite them being unflattering at times. He’s such a funny writer that you can do the mistake of underestimating the social and economic challenges that he and his family went through. Regardless, at the end of all the jokes and laughs lies a purposeful Trevor. Sure, sometimes he just tells a story for the sake of the story, but at most times he tells a story with an end goal in mind be it a life lesson or demonstrating some fact. Born a crime is an autobiography. The author does not make any specific arguments. Instead, he tells the very intriguing story of his coming of age, his mother’s crucial influence, family life, neighborhoods, friends, his identity of being a colored and, finally, how all of this interfaced with the then Apartheid South Africa.
Trevor’s coming of age was not smooth. Despite this, the book remains very transparent about the normal trials and tribulations of growing up faced by his young self and also in his unique circumstances of being a mixed kid, the result of a criminal act, during apartheid. He reminisces through the many times when, in both the schools he attended and his neighborhoods, he had been the odd one out. Such stories are spread throughout the book and in most cases serve as a link to related stories ahead. This is a recurring theme throughout the book. Being a comedian, Trevor writes his story in such a humorous way that it sometimes feels like he is downplaying just how hard his experience must have been. Further into the book and it becomes evident that it is one of the traits he picked up from his mother, Patricia Noah. Trevor is really good at self-deprecating humor. In the book, he dedicates three entire chapters detailing his unsuccessful and very funny high school encounters with the girls he liked. Trevor puts a lot of care in making sure his story comes out in a coherent, detailed, and concrete way. To achieve this, he highlights a multitude of scenarios in his youth going from his early childhood to his schoolboy days to his young adulthood days. With that same sense of humor that he is well known for, he carefully revisits every story with equal weight, even the silly ones.
Trevor beautifully writes about his fascinating relationship with his mother covering all the ways that his mother influenced him throughout his life. By the end of the first chapter, the reader is very clear about the dynamic of their relationship. Trevor takes the reader on a journey showing, both directly and indirectly, just how much his mother served as his role model. He does a full circle in this, highlighting the many lessons his mother taught him but also at the same time criticizing where he thinks she went wrong. Many laughs are available in their cat and mouse chases, mother-son adventures, mother-son arguments and more. On a more personal level, the book seems like a 200-page appreciation letter for his mother. It is very clear from the book that Trevor has an unshakeable bond with his mother which seems to have been made even stronger by the social forces in Apartheid South Africa. Born a crime is a story of Trevor Noah, as much as it is the story of Patricia Nombuyiselo Noah. Despite the challenges of growing up as a colored in South Africa, the presence and influence of his mother made all the difference. Whatever Trevor ended up pursuing, believing, and doing was and has been shaped in one way or another by his mother’s unconditional love, defiance attitude and, at most times, complete ignoring of socially-accepted norms. Part of growing is being able to challenge and push oneself into doing the things that they consider hard. Trevor adamantly shows his mother’s role in all this and makes it clear how her very essence and constant challenging pushed his notion of what was possible for him.
In Born a Crime, Trevor does not just write about his relationship with his mother. He also covers the nature of his relationships with his immediate family including his grandparents, father, step-father, step-siblings, and so forth. Living under Apartheid, and him being the only mixed one in his family, he navigates about how that shaped his identity. Regarding the relationship he had with his father, he writes about it as it is, no more, no less. He dedicates an entire chapter in which he goes deep about the evolution of his relationship with his father to where they stand. In covering his relationship with his father, he creatively uses that opportunity to cross over and make even more concrete the impact of Apartheid in his day-to-day life. He covers everything — from the times when they could barely see each other all the way to when they revived their father-son bond and kicked right off. Trevor is also very transparent about the messy parts of family and acknowledges how that affected him. He tries as much as possible to be objective when detailing the fluctuating relationship he had with his step-father. For example, he paints both sides of his step-father — the good and the bad, the brilliant car mechanic and the abusive alcoholic, and so forth.
Reading the book, it becomes crystal clear just how much influence Trevor’s surrounding society had on him. Some entire chapters of the book are a testament to this truth. His writings show just how much he grew up interacting with people across the full cultural and economic spectrum. He extensively covers the adventures with his childhood friends in Soweto, the influence of beliefs and traditions in his immediate society, and its impact in shaping what he, in turn, believed. He covers the extent to which people were centered on faith (the best example being his mother). He vividly revisits his days as a young man not living with his mother anymore and how much his friends from different neighborhoods showed him how to navigate the streets and do trade. In talking about society, Trevor covers how Apartheid structured it, the state that it left the majority of South Africans after it was abolished, and how that transpired in day-to-day life. Overall, he does a good job of immersing the reader and giving them a tour of the other people and surroundings that were and some of which still are part of his life.
Born a crime is a coming of age story. It covers the evolution of a character and the various forces that shaped his identity. As highlighted earlier, Trevor does a good job in not only covering the influences from within his family but also those from outside. With regard to being mixed, he chronicles the hardships he faced trying to fit in. It is very impressive how much detail he recalls from the beginning of his high school years which makes his explanations concrete. He recalls the challenge of having to choose which groups to hang out with and then eventually being a ‘cultural chameleon’. He also explains and retells the stories of the many times he was treated differently. Trevor does an excellent job of carefully and suspense-fully revealing the different facets of his identity starting from the mischievous boy shitting on newspapers to the street-smart teenager innovating ways to make more pocket cash, all the way to the young ambitious man working on his dreams of being a comedian.
Being able to accurately tell the story of Apartheid is one of the central aims of the book. First and foremost, the book is written in such a way that someone with little to no awareness of what Apartheid was can jump right in and slowly build a sufficient picture to contextualize what Trevor, his family, and the majority of South Africans were going through. Many of the chapters in the book start with a page or two dedicated to providing the necessary information and setting the context that allows the reader to understand the upcoming chapter. Policies and laws enacted under the Apartheid regime dictated a lot of what Trevor and his family did and experienced in multiple ways. In writing the book, he thoroughly covers this from every relevant angle. Throughout the book, Trevor illustrates this with many scenarios and instances of when he or his family could not do something because it was considered illegal. Ever the person who can crack jokes about almost anything, he pokes fun at the silliness of the whole system, its legislative practices, and demonstrates his very being as evidence to the invalidity of Apartheid. As the old maxim, “Too much of anything is harmful” goes, Trevor is careful not to make everything laughable as that can sometimes tend to downplay the seriousness of a topic. He fluctuates between seriousness and joking-fulness with the right balance such that the reader appreciates the challenging situations people were faced with and, at the same time, has fun and cracks a good laugh here and there. As an author, I think this is definitely one of Trevor’s core strengths.
Trevor’s upbringing happens at a critical moment in South African history. That being the case, his life and the lives of those surrounding him embody historical experiences. Throughout the book, besides the historical facts surrounding Apartheid such as the legislation, the reader gets a more concrete view of what was happening through the lens of Trevor’s life and the lives of those surrounding him. Instead of just dry facts and generalized explanations, the book succeeds in deriving the right appreciation for the hardships. A somewhat peripheral take on the significance of the book is that it showed how important it can be for even a single person to remain resilient and strong during systemic hardships — and how that can help inspire someone. In Trevor’s life, that person happened to be his beloved mother.
Trevor Noah is truly one of a kind and Born a crime makes that crystal clear. It is humbling and inspiring to see just how far he has come and how much experiences he has amassed over the years. As daunting of a task as writing an autobiography is — all the different life stages to be covered, shuffling through memories, recalling conversations, filtering unnecessary information — Born a crime successfully covers the important parts and interweaves different parts together to result in a story that is not just about the author but also about nearly everyone who influenced him — in a good or bad way. To me, this is what makes it special. Trevor makes sure to cover the very essence of the book title by going over his coming of age, influence from family and society, and the role of Apartheid in all that. For a title that sounds gloomy, Born a crime is a light-hearted read that is bound to give any reader as many moments of utter surprise as those of good laughs. I would highly recommend it to anyone looking to know the personal story of one of the funniest and most celebrated African comedians of our time.
