![]() For a child growing up in South Africa in the last days of, and the tumult following apartheid, he faced crises far greater than dissatisfied fans. But I always root for the underdog, so as he was getting savaged by critics and fans in his first few days on the job, I kept hoping he'd be able to tough it out and show the stuff-comedic and otherwise-of which he was made.Īfter reading Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood, I realize that I needn't have worried about Trevor Noah. I inherently knew that they wouldn't pick someone with a sense of humor and style identical to Stewart's, but I felt that Noah was so different that his selection meant the show would have a really different feel, which might not appeal to long-time fans of the show. I was really surprised when Trevor Noah was named Jon Stewart's successor on The Daily Show. It is also the story of that young man’s relationship with his fearless, rebellious, and fervently religious mother-his teammate, a woman determined to save her son from the cycle of poverty, violence, and abuse that would ultimately threaten her own life. ![]() Finally liberated by the end of South Africa’s tyrannical white rule, Trevor and his mother set forth on a grand adventure, living openly and freely and embracing the opportunities won by a centuries-long struggle.īorn a Crime is the story of a mischievous young boy who grows into a restless young man as he struggles to find himself in a world where he was never supposed to exist. Living proof of his parents’ indiscretion, Trevor was kept mostly indoors for the earliest years of his life, bound by the extreme and often absurd measures his mother took to hide him from a government that could, at any moment, steal him away. Trevor was born to a white Swiss father and a black Xhosa mother at a time when such a union was punishable by five years in prison. Trevor Noah’s unlikely path from apartheid South Africa to the desk of The Daily Show began with a criminal act: his birth. These examples demonstrate why Noah continually feels like he doesn’t belong anywhere, and it’s this search to belong that ultimately propels each story in the memoir.The memoir of one man’s coming-of-age, set during the twilight of apartheid and the tumultuous days of freedom that followed. The only exception is when they move to the “colored” neighborhood however, even while there, Noah doesn’t fit in with the other kids because they perceive him as either too white or too black. While his mother defies the government-imposed racial restrictions by secretly living wherever she desires, Noah is still the only non-white person wherever they live. Again, he’s one of the only non-white people in the entire neighborhood. After high school, Noah spends a lot of time in Alexandra, a poor, all-black ghetto that is filled with crime. However, when Noah visits his dad, he sneaks into an all-white neighborhood. When Noah visits his mom’s family, he is the only non-black person in an otherwise all-black neighborhood. For example, Noah’s mom’s side of the family has been forced for generations to live in Soweto, a government-sanctioned ghetto for black South Africans. Each of these people and experiences are intimately connected to a specific place, which further reveals the effects of apartheid. While the first half of the book focuses on Noah’s young childhood with his mother, the latter half of the book centers on his search for identity through his friends, attempts at dating, and business ventures.
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