Born a Crime: Stories of a South African Childhood. Audiobook by Trevor Noah

Trevor Noah seemed to have come out of nowhere when he was tapped to replace John Stewart on The Daily Show. I admit by the time I was not watching the Daily Show as much as I once did, mostly due to just getting older and not watching television as much, and not due to Trevor Noah. I found him extraordinarily intelligent and funny when I did watch.

I recently finished his audiobook, Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood. Noah tells the story of how his mother who was black, wanted to have a child and through various life choices had a baby with a Swedish white man. And at a time when such a union was punishable by five years in prison.

And because of that, for the first several years of his life Noah wasn’t allowed to play outside. He had to be kept indoors.

The audiobook, which is narrated by Trevor Noah himself, is quite engaging. Noah is just telling stories of his childhood and thoroughly enjoying it as he does. Probably because he got into trouble—a lot. A lot of wonderful amazing trouble.

Such as the time he took a dump in the kitchen floor as his blind grandmother watched him, and then his super religious family thought the smell came from a demon. So naturally they had to have a prayer service to get rid of the smell of the poop he left in the kitchen trashcan.

Just extraordinary stories.

Wrapped around the stories of this hyperactive child, was the evil of apartheid was from someone who actually lived through it. That aspect alone is enough for me to recommend the book. You don’t understand the unintended consequences and just the shear silliness of the idea Chinese people we consider black, but Japanese people, because they wanted their electronics and the economics they brought, were considered white.

See, stupid, and evil.

But the most enthralling arch of the biography was the story of Able. His step-father and the man who would shoot his mom. And that is exactly how Noah introduces him. The man who would shoot his mom.

I was hooked from there.

Listen to this book to learn about what happens with his super religious mom, who only needs Jesus as her life insurance, gets shot by her ex-husband.

Highly recommended.

Pick it up here: https://amzn.to/3DFf3J7