When I came across this book I was intrigued by the book’s description on Goodreads. I remembered Trevor Noah from a couple of standups I had seen. So I decided to read the book.
The book takes you to his childhood and describes the circumstances he grew up in. How he didn’t fit in any of the groups and how he managed to deal with it using his polyglot skills. There are many interesting, unusual and often funny anecdotes.
The book also gives a glimpse of Apartheid. Before reading this book all I knew about the Apartheid was something bad, racist thing that happened in South Africa. This book gives an inside account of what it was like to live under the final years of Apartheid. It does a good job of highlighting the atrocities without making it a boring history lesson.
Throughout the book, Trevor has made some observations about life, human tendencies. He hasn’t shied away from putting down thoughts that might seem a bit immoral to some - e.g. him evaluating the value of his mom’s life.
All in all, this book is an interesting read. It’s well written and uses simple English. It feels a bit slow after you have read a few pages but gets very interesting in the second half. If you like reading biographies I would definitely recommend this one.
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