#58 [2023/CBR15] Born a Crime by Trevor Noah (Audio version)

I read Born a Crime (2016) by Trevor Noah back in 2017, and it was one of my favorite books of the year. I was already impressed by Noah from watching him on The Daily Show, but I had no idea what his early life was like. I am also impressed by Noah's ability to see both sides of an issue and understand other points of view.

I rarely reread books, but I'd heard that Trevor Noah did a very good job reading his audiobook, and I was interested in revisiting it. However, my library never carried the Audiobook, so it wasn't until I got an Audible subscription that I decided it was time.

And Noah did a fantastic job reading his book. He is great at accents and languages, and he hits them all perfectly. I thought I still remembered a lot about this book from when I read it the first time, but there were still bits I'd forgotten. I clearly remembered his discussions about Apartheid and how he was "born a crime" because his mother was black and his father was white. His mother had to pretend Trevor was not her son when they were in public. I also remembered Trevor's abusive step dad and how much he terrorized Trevor, and especially his mother. Finally, I also remembered Trevor's dancing friend, Hitler, and how much unintentional upset that caused at a Jewish school.

One part of the book that I'd forgotten was Trevor's discussion of Alexandra, when he lived there after school. He couldn't live with his dangerous stepfather anymore and moved out, hustling and selling music to make money. But he described it as working your ass off but never getting anywhere. No matter how successful you were, Alexandra would always drag you down. After a couple of bad encounters with the police, he moved away.

The part of the book that stuck with me the most this time was Trevor Noah's mother and how she could do nothing about the violence she suffered from at the hands of her [ex]husband. She went to the police multiple times and they never did anything. He attacked her with a bicycle, and the police didn't do anything. Finally, after divorcing him and trying to move on, he shoots her in the head. And he doesn't even get jail time! He still lives in a neighborhood close to Noah's mother. At the time, Noah was frustrated with his mother for not leaving him sooner, but he has a much greater understanding of domestic violence now. He sees that his mother was in a societal trap that was almost impossible to get out of.

Trevor's discussion of Apartheid and racism as well as how his mother was a brave, uncompromising woman who raised her son to escape any human-set boundaries is eye-opening and important reading. Highly, highly recommended if you've somehow missed it.