Trevor Noah’s 2016 memoir Born a Crime details the comedian and current host of The Daily Show’s childhood in South Africa during the tail-end and aftermath of apartheid. A product of the illegal relationship between his black, Xhosa mother and his white, Swiss father, Noah’s existence was just that: a crime. This book is a raw, heartfelt account of Noah’s youth, balancing his life as a “half-white, half black” person in South Africa with the happenings of any young boy’s life. Born a Crime provides insight not only into the making of this celebrity, but into the workings of apartheid and the complexities of race relations across the globe.
Of course, as a comedian, Noah knows how to make his readers laugh. He tells a number of comical anecdotes ranging from his first stint in a jail, how he came to DJ a Jewish gathering with Hitler, and the derailing of his matric dance. The perfect arc and nuance of these tales seem to be delivered by a man who had been waiting to tell them for years.
Between laughs, Noah’s autobiography is eye-opening and deeply personal. He writes frequently about his identity struggles. Accepting South Africa’s “colored” label always came up short, and Noah explains the inner turmoil caused by walking into a space filled with diverse people and having to pick which race to be that day. Born a Crime valiantly uncovers many of the ways in which race itself is social construct.
At the very core of his touching memoir, however, is Noah’s relationship with his mother, Patricia. Under apartheid, Noah recounts the many times he spent in public, walking next to a woman who matched his complexion while his mother trailed behind like a stranger. They could not be seen together outside the home, so he inevitably spent most of his time indoors. He also recalls his Sundays being swallowed by three church services. His mother, a deeply spiritual woman, had Noah praying for everybody growing up. Noah paints his mother to be an independent, glowing, clever woman; the memoir certainly shines its brightest in his accounts of her, perhaps because he attributes his freedom to be the person he is entirely to her. Noah writes that everyone around him had biblical or Xhosa, fate-defining names, but “Trevor” his mom explains “is just a name.” Noah writes, “She wanted me to be free to go anywhere, do anything, be anyone.”
Noah’s memoir is a book for anyone with a love for honest storytelling, or maybe just a love for Noah himself. Regardless of reason for purchase, by the end of this novel you will have gained something, and lost nothing. For those who have already read the novel, or aren’t much of a reader, there is good news: more of Born a Crime is on the way. Recently, actress and friend of the author Lupita Nyong’o has announced that she will be producing and starring in a film adaptation of the novel directed by Liesl Tommy.
Buy Trevor Noah’s New York Times Best Seller, Born a Crime, right here.