Born a Crime
Stories from a South African Childhood
Written and Narrated By: Trevor Noah
Length: 8 hrs and 44 mins
Dude with ADD survives childhood and doesn’t kill anybody with his shenanigans
Cuz that’s what most of Born a Crime is: the unholy crap he got into as a child and young adult, and how people could’ve gotten hurt but never did. Through it all, Trevor Noah offers up a slew of excuses for how it’s perfectly understandable that he got into such scrapes, and how it’s perfectly okay that he and his friends did what they did. He says that today his childhood self might be labeled as ADD or some such ilk, but that it was a good thing nobody went in for such BS when he was but a boy because that meant he got to have a normal childhood.
Dude… You burned down somebody’s house… just saying… kinda extreme…
But that’s not the only thing he and his friends got up to. There was PLENTY of shoplifting; plenty of piracy of CDs, plenty of turning 5 bits of money into 10, into 20, and so on, by way of loan sharking or buying and reselling stolen property. Stolen this, that, the other, make a big part of the 8 hours and 44 minutes of listening time you’re in for. He says it’s all part of growing up in abject poverty. Even if your mother was kinda a holy roller who had a deep (and desperately funny) relationship with God and Jesus Christ, you can still somehow manage to grow up without a sense of morals or values.
Perrrrrfectly logical, but it makes for some exasperation as Noah finds himself doing one atrocious thing after another. Again… just saying…
The good thing is that Born a Crime really shines and comes alive with Trevor’s narration. He can twist a sentence around to where it just SOUNDS funny, and he can deliver a recap of an unfortunate event that is just plain hilarious (Think: Go Hitler! Go Hitler!). Plus, though his mother didn’t manage to get her sons out of a truly violent and frightening home environment, she was at least loving and funny. She really did believe that God took care of everything (She says this even as Trevor picks up a hospital bill for her).
Born a Crime is a mega-hit, so who am I to get exasperated by his youthful foibles? Dunno…
…Just saying…
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