Review
Born a crime and other stories
Warm wisdom of Noah’s arc
Trevor Noah’s book opens with the Immorality Act, 1927 — the legislation that shaped his childhood experiences as an illegal person and his identity as an outsider. Born to a black mother and a white, Swiss father who met in Hillbrow, Noah, 32, describes his early childhood and adolescence through 18 stories. The host of The Daily Show could not have had a less likely upbringing. The leap from the poverty of his childhood and hustling of his late adolescence in SA to hosting the US’s iconic satirical news programme seems miraculous. Many of the scenarios Noah describes will be only too familiar to many South Africans and Americans alike – racism, arrest, abuse, poverty and violence. But there is also joy, love, family and community, which Noah describes with warmth and humour. Speaking in London on Saturday, Noah held the 2,000-strong audience spellbound. He was as entertaining live as he is on the page. While Born A Crime reads as fairly matter of fact, unsentimental and devoid of ...
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