American=Always Becoming?

American=Always Becoming?

I was born in Brooklyn. My father’s parents came in the 1920s (escaping bad Italian economy post-WWI) and my mom came from the Philippines in the 1960s (seeking professional advancement post-WWII), but I have never gotten over the feeling of being not-quite American, always-becoming American. I think I’m drawn to Trevor Noah’s ongoing, well-informed, self-affirming yet often self-effacing conversation about Americanness and foreignness and belongingness and otherness because I’ve been having similar conversations with myself all my life. Also, whereas it’s not funny when I do it, it is when he does. I use too many hyphens and made-up words.

Get the audio book of Born a Crime. Noah reads it, and nothing compares to his vocal cadences, his mastery of accents for every one of the languages he speaks (I can’t even remember how many are represented here), and his storytelling acumen.