Monday, December 17, 2018

Born a Crime: Stories From a South African Childhood by Trevor Noah

Born a Crime: Stories From a South African ChildhoodBorn a Crime: Stories From a South African Childhood by Trevor Noah
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Trevor Noah's Born a Crime was a quick easy to read book owing to the humour and vivid character descriptions. Patricia Noah, Trevor's mum is depicted as strong, religious and intelligent. He helps the readers understand apartheid and the woes of growing up during and after apartheid. Trevor's childhood was not an easy one. He manages to show how crime in ghettos is perceived and how domestic violence was and is rampant in most African cultures. I kept waiting for his mother's story and how she eventually broke free of the abusive step dad...

An honest funny childhood memoir.. All along I had thought Naipaul's Miguel Street was top on my list of memoirs but this one is number one for now...

As usual, I share my favorite quotes;“Growing up in a home of abuse, you struggle with the notion that you can love a person you hate, or hate a person you love. It's a strange feeling. You want to live in a world where someone is good or bad, where you either love or hate them, but that's not how people are.”
“We tell people to follow their dreams, but you can only dream of what you can imagine, and, depending on where you come from, your imagination can be quite limited.”

“Language, even more than color, defines who you are to people.”

“The way my mother always explained it, the traditional man wants a woman to be subservient, but he never falls in love with subservient women. He’s attracted to independent women. “He’s like an exotic bird collector,” she said. “He only wants a woman who is free because his dream is to put her in a cage.”

“The hood made me realise that crime succeeds because crime does the one thing the government doesn’t do: crime cares. Crime is grassroots. Crime looks for the young kids who need support and a lifting hand. Crime offers internship programmes and part-time jobs and opportunities for advancement. Crime gets involved in the community. Crime doesn’t discriminate.”

“Growing up in a home of abuse, you struggle with the notion that you can love a person you hate, or hate a person you love. It's a strange feeling. You want to live in a world where someone is good or bad, where you either love or hate them, but that's not how people are.”


No comments:

Post a Comment