Born a Crime:
chapters 9-14
read-along at
Book Bloggers International

This book is so good, I’m surprised not more bloggers have joined the read-along

So here are the questions proposed today on the chapters 9-14 of the book, with my answers:

1. This past week was Valentine’s Day, and appropriately Part II features not one, not two, but three stories from Noah’s tragic misadventures in romance. Which one of these was your favorite? Which the saddest? Did they remind you of any of your own teenage heartbreaks? Juicy details pls

Sorry I didn’t take too many notes on that, I found all these stories rather sad. And I’m not your best candidate for that type of story. I spent my teenage years in studies and books, no time for dating.

2. In Chapter 9, “The Mulberry Tree,” Noah says that’s it’s easier to be an outsider trying to fit in than an insider who doesn’t. Do you think this is true? How do you think that experience shaped how Noah related to the world going forward? How did you react to the actions of Abel?

I actually had a hard time understanding really what he meant by that sentence, I reread it in the context several times, in vain. I would appreciate if you could tell me how you understand this passage.

3. Trevor Noah: entrepreneur or hustler?

Aren’t the two words synonyms, lol? I think he was probably a bit of both, which made sense for a smart kid who had finally found a way to survive and makes the best of a tough situation. And anyway, he was racketing anyone, he was using the greed of the other kids for his own interest, using the only strengths he had, his speed and his idea to come up with that idea.

4. One of the most tragi-comic stories in the section, I think, is Chapter 13, “Colorblind.” What were some of your reactions to the story? Noah never tells us what happens to his friend–why do you think that is??

It actually did not surprise me on the side of the justice: we often only see what we want to see, and we automatically block what we do not want to see.
And on Noah’s part, he may have shut up about it for the sake of his mother.
Why he never tells us about his friend: maybe because deep down he still feels guilty about it?

5. Anything else you found interesting or want to discuss?

– What amazed me in chapter 9 was how arbitrary the apartheid classifications could be, how for instance, for a reason or another, you could be reclassified as white, or vice versa! And how the system built enmity between the groups:

That’s what apartheid did: it convinced every group that it was because of the other race that they didn’t get into the club.
p.120

– Behind Trevor’s humor and sharpness, it’s very sad to feel deeper his inner solitude in these chapters.
I wonder if the fact of never having felt by any group white, black, colored, was the ultimate reason why he left his country.

If you want to see my comments on the other chapters, please check:

• Chapters 1-3 Discussion

• Chapters 4-8 (End of Part I) Discussion

• Chapters 9-14 (Part II) Discussion

• Chapters 15-end (Part III) Discussion

#12mos12rals

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