Produktdetails
- Verlag
- Random House LLC US
- Erschienen
- 2017
- Sprache
- English
- Seiten
- 304
- Infos
- 304 Seiten
129 mm x 199 mm - ISBN
- 978-0-525-50902-8
Besprechung
A soul-nourishing pleasure . . . an enormous gift. USA Today
By turns alarming, sad and funny . . . not just an unnerving account of growing up in South Africa under apartheid, but a love letter to the author s remarkable mother. Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times
You d be hard-pressed to find a comic s origin story better than the one Trevor Noah serves up in Born a Crime. . . . Witty truth-telling . . . brilliant comedy. O: The Oprah Magazine
Remarkable . . . smart . . . extraordinary . . . essential reading on every level. The Seattle Times
[Noah] thrives with the help of his astonishingly fearless mother. . . . Their fierce bond makes this story soar. People
When I think of Trevor Noah, the first image I see is from his brilliant memoir, Born a Crime, of Trevor s mother throwing him out of a moving vehicle while he s asleep in order to save his life. Through other eyes this could be remembered as traumatic and harrowing. Through Trevor s it is bonding and hilarious, a testament to the love of someone who truly had to think on their feet. That is how Trevor sees the world. A fantastic storyteller, he has always been a defier of rules, which he broke simply by being born in his native country. Lupita Nyong o, Time
Noah s not the main character in his own story his mother is the constant . . . and by the end, Noah lovingly makes clear that the book belongs to her. . . . Noah proves to be a gifted storyteller, able to deftly lace his poignant tales with amusing irony. Entertainment Weekly
[An] unforgettable memoir. Parade
This isn t your average comic-writes-a-memoir: It s a unique look at a man who is a product of his culture and a nuanced look at a part of the world whose people have known dark times easily pushed aside. Refinery29
[Noah s] electrifying memoir sparkles with funny stories . . . and his candid and compassionate essays deepen our perception of the complexities of race, gender, and class. Booklist (starred review)
Powerful prose . . . told through stories and vignettes that are sharply observed, deftly conveyed and consistently candid. Growing organically from them is an affecting investigation of identity, ethnicity, language, masculinity, nationality and, most of all, humanity. Mail & Guardian (South Africa)
[Noah s] story of surviving and thriving is mind-blowing. Cosmopolitan
Noah has a real tale to tell, and he tells it well. . . . Among the many virtues of Born a Crime is a frank and telling portrait of life in South Africa during the 1980s and 90s. Newsday
An affecting memoir, Born a Crime [is] a love letter to his mother. The Washington Post
Witty and revealing . . . Noah s story is the story of modern South Africa. Publishers Weekly (starred review)
Textauszug
1
Run
Sometimes in big Hollywood movies they ll have these crazy chase scenes where somebody jumps or gets thrown from a moving car. The person hits the ground and rolls for a bit. Then they come to a stop and pop up and dust themselves off, like it was no big deal. Whenever I see that I think, That s rubbish. Getting thrown out of a moving car hurts way worse than that.
I was nine years old when my mother threw me out of a moving car. It happened on a Sunday. I know it was on a Sunday because we were coming home from church, and every Sunday in my childhood meant church. We never missed church. My mother was and still is a deeply religious woman. Very Christian. Like indigenous peoples around the world, black South Africans adopted the religion of our colonizers. By adopt I mean it was forced on us. The white man was quite stern with the native. You need to pray to Jesus, he said. Jesus will save you. To which the native replied, Well, we do need to be saved saved from you, but that s beside the point. So let s give this Jesus thing a shot.
My whole family is religious, but where my mother was Team Jesus all the way, my grandmother balanced her Christian faith with the traditional Xhosa beliefs she d grown up with, communicating with the spirits of our ancestors. For a long time I didn t understand why so many black people had abandoned their indigenous faith for Christianity. But the more we went to church and the longer I sat in those pews the more I learned about how Christianity works: If you re Native American and you pray to the wolves, you re a savage. If you re African and you pray to your ancestors, you re a primitive. But when white people pray to a guy who turns water into wine, well, that s just common sense.
My childhood involved church, or some form of church, at least four nights a week. Tuesday night was the prayer meeting. Wednesday night was Bible study. Thursday night was Youth church. Friday and Saturday we had off. (Time to sin!) Then on Sunday we went to church. Three churches, to be precise. The reason we went to three churches was because my mom said each church gave her something different. The first church offered jubilant praise of the Lord. The second church offered deep analysis of the scripture, which my mom loved. The third church offered passion and catharsis; it was a place where you truly felt the presence of the Holy Spirit inside you. Completely by coincidence, as we moved back and forth among these churches, I noticed that each one had its own distinct racial makeup: Jubilant church was mixed church. Analytical church was white church. And passionate, cathartic church, that was black church.
Mixed church was Rhema Bible Church. Rhema was one of those huge, supermodern, suburban megachurches. The pastor, Ray McCauley, was an ex-bodybuilder with a big smile and the personality of a cheerleader. Pastor Ray had competed in the 1974 Mr. Universe competition. He placed third. The winner that year was Arnold Schwarzenegger. Every week, Ray would be up onstage working really hard to make Jesus cool. There was arena-style seating and a rock band jamming out with the latest Christian contemporary pop. Everyone sang along, and if you didn t know the words that was okay because they were all right up there on the Jumbotron for you. It was Christian karaoke, basically. I always had a blast at mixed church.
White church was Rosebank Union in Sandton, a very white and wealthy part of Johannesburg. I loved white church because I didn t actually have to go to the main service. My mom would go to that, and I would go to the youth side, to Sunday school. In Sunday school we got to read cool stories. Noah and the flood was obviously a favorite; I had a personal stake there. But I also l
Langtext
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER More than one million copies sold! A brilliant (Lupita Nyong o, Time), poignant (Entertainment Weekly), soul-nourishing (USA Today) memoir about coming of age during the twilight of apartheid
Noah s childhood stories are told with all the hilarity and intellect that characterizes his comedy, while illuminating a dark and brutal period in South Africa s history that must never be forgotten. Esquire
Winner of the Thurber Prize for American Humor and an NAACP Image Award Named one of the best books of the year by The New York Time, USA Today, San Francisco Chronicle, NPR, Esquire, Newsday, and Booklist
Trevor Noah s unlikely path from apartheid South Africa to the desk of The Daily Show began with a criminal act: his birth. Trevor was born to a white Swiss father and a black Xhosa mother at a time when such a union was punishable by five years in prison. Living proof of his parents indiscretion, Trevor was kept mostly indoors for the earliest years of his life, bound by the extreme and often absurd measures his mother took to hide him from a government that could, at any moment, steal him away. Finally liberated by the end of South Africa s tyrannical white rule, Trevor and his mother set forth on a grand adventure, living openly and freely and embracing the opportunities won by a centuries-long struggle.
Born a Crime is the story of a mischievous young boy who grows into a restless young man as he struggles to find himself in a world where he was never supposed to exist. It is also the story of that young man s relationship with his fearless, rebellious, and fervently religious mother his teammate, a woman determined to save her son from the cycle of poverty, violence, and abuse that would ultimately threaten her own life.
The stories collected here are by turns hilarious, dramatic, and deeply affecting. Whether subsisting on caterpillars for dinner during hard times, being thrown from a moving car during an attempted kidnapping, or just trying to survive the life-and-death pitfalls of dating in high school, Trevor illuminates his curious world with an incisive wit and unflinching honesty. His stories weave together to form a moving and searingly funny portrait of a boy making his way through a damaged world in a dangerous time, armed only with a keen sense of humor and a mother s unconventional, unconditional love.
Über den AutorIn
Trevor Noah is a comedian from South Africa.