The genius of apartheid was convincing people who were the overwhelming majority to turn on each other. Apart hate, is what it was. You separate people into groups and make them hate one another so you can run them all.

Trevor Noah

In „Born a Crime: Stories From a South African Childhood“ he tells the striking story of growing up as a mixed child under apartheid in South Africa. As the first born of his South African mother and his Swiss father he truly was born a crime: under apartheid members of the white and black communities were prohibited from „illicit carnal intercourse“.

Apartheid was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa from 1948 until the early 1990s. Apartheid was characterised by an authoritarian political culture based on baasskap (or white supremacy), which encouraged state repression of Black African, Coloured, and Asian South Africans for the benefit of the nation’s minority white population.

Wikipedia Article

In 287 humorous pages Trevor Noah introduces himself, his family and friends in a setting widely unknown, especially for white male Europeans such as myself. In great detail he covers the challenges of everyday life, showing the reader how apartheid cast him out as being different. It is hard to grasp how the upbringing under such conditions must be: constant fear of being cast out, arrested by police or harassed by other kids.

Throughout the book what stood out the most to me was the special bond between him and his mother. Don’t get me wrong, having received his fair share of „disciplinary“ beatings, their relationship does – if anything – qualify as intense. The seemingly constant battle over control underlines their „Tom and Jerry relationship„, as he puts it himself. As humorous as this reads, statements such as the following must be formative to say the very least:

I chose to have your because I wanted something to love and something that would love me unconditionally in return – and then I gave birth to the most selfish piece of shit on earth and all it ever did was cry and eat and shit and say, ‚me, me, me, me me.‘

Trevor Noah in Chapter 6, „Loopholes“

As cruel as this might seem, this was their modus operandi – a very open, harsh even, dialog between partners. Partners so close that the occasional chase in „turbo mode“ might end up with you being tackled by strangers. With a rebellious, strong but loving mother like Patricia Nombuyiselo Noah it does not come as a surprise that Trevor Noah was able to successfully face this hostile environment of segregation and become the man, the successful entertainer and the insightful author he now is.

This book is a must-read not only because it shows the ins and outs of a comedic genius, but because it allows a glimpse into the narrow-minded world of racism, the stupidity of apartheid and celebrates the incredible strength of single mothers defying all obstacles laid out by law. Go out and buy it!

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Well, having said that, let’s jump into the „Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald – The Original Screenplay„, shall we?

I will address the elephant in the room first: why read a printed version of a screenplay that has already hit cinemas around the world? Being a bookworm most certainly has its challenges But seriously: some details are simply better suited to be found in books – be it digital or analogue. I like watching movies as much as the next, but reading gives me more control over the tiniest bits of information that I can extract. Even when reading stories that are as benign as these I prefer written words to production-grade movies.

„Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald – The Original Screenplay“ comes in a beautifully crafted hardcover designed by MinaLima Design. The story is stretched over 272 illustrated pages, that truly underline the full transition the books of J.K. Rowling have gone through. As good as this sounds, that’s been the best I can say about this book: it is beautiful.

I cannot hide my confusion about the contents of this publication. The story arc seems stretched, farfetched at points. There are serious plot holes and details that do not make sense when viewed from the angle of the Harry Potter book series. Which raises the question: are we being played?

As a physical object, The Crimes of Grindelwald is undeniably covetable and beautiful. But as literature? I am Potter-mad myself but even I remain unsure about the publishing of scripts.

Sian Cain

Sian Cain, Site editor of Guardian Books, sums it up quite nicely in my opinion. This book is a collectors’ item, a token symbolising fandom towards Rowling. It is one of the very first merchandising articles brought to the market that holds true to the very nature Potterheads like to experience Potteresque content – though presented in the rather unconventional form of a screenplay.

Summa summarum

I withhold my judgment until the full story has been published and we finally know how much J.K. Rowling is playing us. As we have seen in the Harry Potter series, she has been unmatched in building up confusing personas while dissolving plot holes and story related dilemmas in grand finale storyline twists. Yes, I am not overly content on how this story has turned out so far. But we will complain on how this ends soon enough

Do you really need to have this book in your bookshelf? I don’t think so. But it’s a beautifully crafted collectors’ item so you might find yourself in possession of this book before I can say Quidditch.

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