2019 #9: Born A Crime (Trevor Noah)

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

My husband read this book earlier this summer and I thought it was going to sadly languish on my TBR pile until in a lovely coincidence, my workplace chose it for a community read. Noah uses humor to create a kind of distance from the sorts of everyday horrors of racism. As a memoir, it is a tribute to his mother and is full of stories that reveal how he had to navigate life growing up in a "post-Apartheid" South Africa, that really wasn't much of post-anything--at least not in terms of the socio-economic ramifications.

He intersperses moments of clarity and severity--you don't forget that your laughter enables you to turn the page. The narrative arc is more of a narrative wave, with the denouement more of an explosion at the end. It is a book about code-switching. It is a book about history and culture. And ultimately, I think it is a book about love. And hate.