I rarely read autobiographies (or even biographies), but I’m so glad I read this one! Someone suggested this to me, and after a month of deliberating, I bought it.
Trevor Noah needs no introduction. He is all over the media these days. He does stand-up routines all over America, he hosts The Daily Show, and he appears in chat shows and interviews in between. His story is amazing, especially to people who were born and brought up in stable and decent households. A boy whose existence in itself was illegal managed to beat the odds and “make it” (as we like to say). Just that much is unbelievable, but to see that Trevor Noah did all that with this amazing sense of humor and perspective? Just amazing.
How many of us have heard of apartheid? Almost everyone, I’m sure, at least if your history lessons covered it in school. Now, how many of us actually know what it meant? Not nearly enough. I didn’t really know what apartheid meant or how it affected the people in Africa at the time it existed or after it ended. The book starts with a short narration about apartheid in a very conversational way. This style seems true to Trevor’s style in his monologues, which makes you laugh and feel terrible at the same time. He continues this style of dialogue throughout.
“My mom did what school didn’t. She taught me how to think.”
The book covers Trevor’s childhood, adolescence, the beginning of his adulthood, and in all stages of his life, his connection with his mother. I must say, the book felt like a tribute to his mother. And if all that’s written in the book about her is true, she completely deserves it. Even though Trevor’s story is amazing, his mother is the true hero. Trevor always had his mother as his teacher, his cheerleader, his moral compass, and his discipline. His mother had no one. No one to tell her that there is more to life than what is in front of her. And somehow she managed to rely on herself and go forward and escape her childhood.
“We tell people to follow their dreams, but you can only dream of what you can imagine, and, depending on where you come from, your imagination can be quite limited.”
The book is full of brilliant quotes that anyone can relate to. If nothing else, these quotes or perspectives can make us rethink things around us. Trevor talks about how he got caught up in crime—low-level crime, but still crime. He got into trouble with the law, because when he was growing up, this was normal. People got arrested all the time. Trevor shows how things are not black and white, but various shades of gray. Crime exists because it is a necessity sometimes.
“The hood made me realise that crime succeeds because crime does the one thing the government doesn’t do: crime cares. Crime is grassroots. Crime looks for the young kids who need support and a lifting hand. Crime offers internship programmes and part-time jobs and opportunities for advancement. Crime gets involved in the community. Crime doesn’t discriminate.”
“People love to say, “Give a man a fish, and he’ll eat for a day. Teach a man to fish, and he’ll eat for a lifetime.” What they don’t say is, “And it would be nice if you gave him a fishing rod.” That’s the part of the analogy that’s missing.”
And in all the stories of his life, there is an underlying theme of race, and racism. Being a mixed child (with a white father and a black mother), race became a struggling point in Trevor’s life. He was raised black but not completely accepted as a black. So his childhood entailed a lot of trying to figure out where he fit in. It is heartbreaking to read about kids having to choose where they belong based on how they look.
I will end my review here because I don’t want to keep writing on and on about how much I enjoyed the book. If you love (or even just like) Trevor Noah the comedian and host, go ahead and read this book. It will give you a much better picture of him as a person. And you will probably enjoy his shows even more.
My rating: ★★★★★ (yes, that’s right!)
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