Reviews tagging 'Antisemitism'

Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood by Trevor Noah

17 reviews

_0_'s review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted reflective relaxing fast-paced

4.75

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Content Warnings

Minor: Racism, Death of parent, Colonisation, Violence, Toxic relationship, Murder, Antisemitism, and War

nomonbooks's review

hopeful informative inspiring medium-paced

5.0

 

This was a fantastic book. You know that Trevor Noah is exceptional from his humour and knowing even a part of his story. His mother really is the root of that, to the exception of the world and some much of this book is about her through him; everything she gave him and everything she believed. I learned a lot of specifics about South Africa and the apartheid. I learned about the experience of black people and coloured people at that time, the power and control racism has over a country and an individual. So many of these memoirs are stories of domestic abuse. I guess because so many people’s stories are those of domestic abuse, by a parent or step parent; sibling, grandparent, aunt or uncle. I don’t know why I would think celebrities are removed from that reality.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse

Minor: Antisemitism

sabrina_d_arcy's review against another edition

emotional funny informative reflective medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Xenophobia, Classism, Colonisation, Cursing, Drug use, Alcohol, Emotional abuse, Alcoholism, Body shaming, Stalking, Toxic friendship, Injury/Injury detail, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Addiction, Blood, Hate crime, Racial slurs, Rape, Racism, Child abuse, Gun violence, Misogyny, Bullying, Domestic abuse, Slavery, Violence, Physical abuse, and Police brutality

Minor: Abandonment, Antisemitism, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Genocide, Kidnapping, Animal cruelty, Addiction, and Excrement

gorg_j's review against another edition

adventurous challenging funny informative inspiring fast-paced

4.25

My mom likes his show and I read this for class. I really liked it- it made me laugh and taught me some things, a new perspective on the the world.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse and Violence

Moderate: Racism

Minor: Antisemitism

megsmagiclibrary's review against another edition

challenging funny informative fast-paced

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism

Moderate: Antisemitism

Minor: Fatphobia

applesaucecreachur's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

4.75

Not many books have the power to make me grin openly, laugh out loud, or choke/tear up. This one did. Trevor Noah's coming-of-age love letter to his mother jumped from story to story of his youth. Some were amusing, some were absurd, and others were downright tragic. All of them, though, masterfully combined comedy with reflection and made cultural and political South African concepts easy for a foreign reader to understand. The cast of characters is vibrant and made three-dimensional with only a few well-thought-out phrases. I wish it had not taken me so long to read this book; I feel that I am a more learned person now, and appreciate my own family all the more. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, and Gun violence

Moderate: Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Misogyny, Blood, and Gore

Minor: Animal cruelty and Antisemitism

ruthiethetoothie's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Domestic abuse, and Gun violence

Moderate: Racial slurs, Xenophobia, and Death of parent

Minor: Antisemitism

delaneysue's review against another edition

emotional funny informative inspiring reflective fast-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Racism, Pregnancy, Medical trauma, Hate crime, Gun violence, Fire/Fire injury, Excrement, Colonisation, Classism, and Alcoholism

Minor: Rape, Racial slurs, Slavery, Suicide, and Antisemitism

lectrixnoctis's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring reflective tense fast-paced

5.0

Trevor Noah's strange path from apartheid South Africa to the desk of The Daily Show began with an illegal act: his birth. Trevor happened to be born to a white Swiss father and a black Xhosa mother when such a union was criminal by five years in prison. Living proof of his parents' recklessness, Trevor was kept frequently indoors for the most prime years of his life, obliged by the extreme and often irrational measures his mother took to hide him from a state that could, at any moment, take him away. Eventually liberated by the end of South Africa's tyrannical white rule, Trevor and his mother set forth on a grand adventure, living fully and freely and embracing the chances won by a centuries-long conflict.

"Born a Crime" is the tale of a prankish young boy who grows into a wandering young man as he strives to find himself in a world where he was never supposed to live in. Additionally, it is the story of that young man's connection with his fearless, rebellious, and highly religious mother—his teammate, a woman settled to save her son from the circle of poverty, violence, and abuse that would eventually threaten her own life.

The narrative was written in the first-person point of view by the author himself, and it was said in the past in South Africa.

Moreover, the motives of this book, in particular about racism and how apartheid, one of the worst crimes committed in South Africa, has affected the country and its people, although the system never truly worked at all. By casting black people away from white people and having no room for mixed children, who by law did not exist. I am a massive advocate for constantly educating yourself, especially racism, even more, if you are white. For me, a woman who has never lived outside of Germany and is broad, it is important to recognise my privilege and think about the system my ancestors have created and how I stop thinking that favours the system and even breaking out of it.

Not to forget to mention the love of Noah's mother was impeccable, and although I disagreed with her tough love method, I know it came from the heart, and I know she only wanted to do the best for him, which she enviably did. I loved reading about the relationship between the author and his mother throughout his whole childhood and his early 20s. Although I do not know these people personally, I felt connected with them because of the writing style, which hit me very hard and was witty at the same time.

A friend bought this as a gift for my 19th birthday, and I cannot be happier to read this book finally. I did not imagine it to hit that hard but in the best way possible. I laughed out loud because of it, and I cried at the end of the book. I did not think that autobiographies could make you feel something this deep like this one does. I highly recommend this book to anyone. You're probably going to cry, but you will love this book, and it will give you extreme joy.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Colonisation, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Genocide, Grief, Gun violence, Hate crime, Pregnancy, Racial slurs, Racism, Slavery, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, and Violence

Moderate: Antisemitism, Child abuse, and Fire/Fire injury

gracechihoski's review against another edition

dark tense fast-paced

1.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Antisemitism