4.5-
I have to admit, I had no idea who Trevor Noah was before I read this and the reason why I read it was because my 17 year old needs to read it for AP Lang so I thought it would be fun to read it and discuss it with her. Because I didn’t know who Trevor Noah was before I read this I went into it with zero expectations.
This is not written as a traditional memoir. While it is different stories of his life growing up in South Africa, it doesn’t follow any real timeline and his stories tend to crisscross with bits of one time being told at one part and then told again in more detail at a later part. That makes it sound confusing, but it really isn’t and it works very nicely.
I found certain parts of this to be very deep and while I never highlight books on my Kindle I found myself highlighting certain sentences and paragraphs to be able to look upon later and for that I am very grateful I bought the Kindle version instead of the Audible or taking it out of the library.
I think the real MVP of this book, though, is Mr. Noah’s mother. She raised him in such a unique way for how kids, especially biracial children, were raised in South Africa during the eighties and nineties. She taught him that he is not bound by what society says he should be and because of that he was able to get himself out when others were being dragged under.
A lot of this book discusses the racism in South Africa both during and after Apartheid. While I knew about Apartheid, I honestly didn’t realize how bad racism was afterwards. Reading about everything Mr. Noah went through was eye opening. His sense of humor is refreshing and makes the hard issues a little easier to stomach.
I am very happy I decided to read this and very glad I now know who this is amazing man is.