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Born a Crime: Chapters 4–8

This memoir recounts Noah's childhood in South Africa during the last years of apartheid.Here are links to our lists for the novel: Chapters 1–2, Chapters 3–5, Chapters 6–11, Chapters 12-16, Chapters 17–18
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Full list of words from this list:

  1. perforate
    make a hole into or between, as for ease of separation
    I was operating on my cousin Bulelwa’s ear with a set of matches when I accidentally perforated her eardrum.
  2. bereaved
    a person who has suffered the death of someone they loved
    I’d go to funerals and I’d walk in and the bereaved would look up and see me and they’d stop crying.
  3. clique
    an exclusive circle of people with a common purpose
    But because of scholarships we all sat at the same table. We wore the same maroon blazers, the same gray slacks and skirts. We had the same books. We had the same teachers. There was no racial separation. Every clique was racially mixed.
  4. endear
    make attractive or lovable
    So the fact that I did speak African languages immediately endeared me to the black kids.
  5. dilapidated
    in a state of decay, ruin, or deterioration
    Most of them shut down, and black children were forced into crowded classrooms in dilapidated schools, often with teachers who were barely literate themselves.
  6. gallivant
    wander aimlessly in search of pleasure
    She went gallivanting with him on his manic misadventures.
  7. ostensibly
    from appearances alone
    The homelands were, ostensibly, the original homes of South Africa’s tribes, sovereign and semi-sovereign “nations” where black people would be “free.”
  8. menial
    relating to unskilled work, especially domestic work
    Other than the menial wages sent home from the cities, families scraped by with little beyond subsistence-level farming.
  9. marrow
    very tender and very nutritious tissue from bones
    My mom would have to fight with the bigger kids to get a handful of meat or a sip of the gravy or even a bone from which to suck out some marrow.
  10. fend
    try to manage without help
    She was hungry; let the animals fend for themselves.
  11. pillage
    steal goods; take as spoils
    Because the generations who came before you have been pillaged, rather than being free to use your skills and education to move forward, you lose everything just trying to bring everyone behind you back up to zero.
  12. beholden
    under a moral obligation to someone
    My mother wanted her child beholden to no fate.
  13. concession
    a point that is yielded
    Concessions were made here and there, some laws were repealed, others simply weren’t enforced.
  14. furtively
    in a secretive manner
    There came a point, in the months before Mandela’s release, when we could live less furtively.
  15. snippet
    a small piece of anything
    I remember moving out there in flashbacks, snippets, driving to a place I’d never seen, seeing people I’d never seen.
  16. modest
    low or inferior in station or quality
    It was modest and cramped inside, but walking in I thought, Wow.
  17. commute
    a regular journey to and from your place of work
    On the commute to work and school, there was a long stretch of the road into town that was completely deserted.
  18. fanfare
    a gaudy outward display
    There was none of the fanfare of a picnic basket or plates or anything like that, only baloney and brown bread and margarine sandwiches wrapped up in butcher paper.
  19. frugality
    prudence in avoiding waste
    Her frugality was the stuff of legend.
  20. threadbare
    thin and tattered with age
    We had threadbare furniture, busted old sofas with holes worn through the fabric.
  21. sheer
    complete and without restriction
    She found her way through sheer force of will.
  22. devise
    arrange by systematic planning and united effort
    But, unlike Indians, there weren’t enough Chinese people to warrant devising a whole separate classification.
  23. honorary
    given as an award without the normal duties
    So Japanese people were given honorary white status while Chinese people stayed black.
  24. voracious
    devouring or craving food in great quantities
    I was a voracious kid. I consumed boxes of books and wanted more, more, more. I ate like a pig.
  25. preempt
    take the place of or have precedence over
    Whenever I went to my cousins’ house for the holidays, my mom would drop me off with a bag of tomatoes, onions, and potatoes and a large sack of cornmeal. That was her way of preempting any complaints about my visit.
  26. compulsive
    having obsessive habits or irresistible urges
    There’s a condition kids suffer from, a compulsive disorder that makes them do things they themselves don’t understand.
  27. devious
    characterized by insincerity or deceit
    My relationship with my mom was like the relationship between a cop and a criminal in the movies—the relentless detective and the devious mastermind she’s determined to catch.
  28. loophole
    an ambiguity that makes it possible to evade an obligation
    Our life turned into a courtroom drama with two lawyers constantly debating over loopholes and technicalities.
  29. spar
    fight verbally
    That way she could make her points and there could be no verbal sparring back and forth.
  30. missive
    a written message addressed to a person or organization
    If we were having a real, full-on argument or if I’d gotten in trouble at school, I’d find more accusatory missives waiting for me when I got home.
  31. ultimatum
    a final peremptory demand
    I think he thought he was giving me an ultimatum that would get me to shape up.
  32. billow
    rise and move, as in waves
    Soon the roof was on fire, and from there the blaze spread to the main house, and the whole thing burned and burned and burned. Smoke was billowing into the sky.
  33. arson
    malicious burning to destroy property
    What were they going to do, arrest a seven-year-old for arson?
  34. impulsive
    characterized by undue haste and lack of thought
    My mom was wild and impulsive. My father was reserved and rational. She was fire, he was ice. They were opposites that attracted, and I am a mix of them both.
  35. exploit
    use or manipulate to one's advantage
    These licenses existed because hotels and restaurants needed them to serve black travelers and diplomats from other countries, who in theory weren’t subject to the same restrictions as black South Africans; black South Africans with money in turn exploited that loophole to frequent those hotels and restaurants.
  36. dismally
    in a dreadful manner
    At first the inspectors came and tried to get him on cleanliness and health-code violations. Clearly they had never heard of the Swiss. That failed dismally.
  37. arbitrary
    based on or subject to individual discretion or preference
    Then they decided to go after him by imposing additional and arbitrary restrictions.
  38. lavish
    characterized by extravagance and profusion
    I feel like my dad had enough money to be comfortable and travel, but he never spent lavishly on things.
  39. contentious
    involving or likely to cause controversy
    The whole issue of Santa Claus is a rather contentious one when it comes to African Christmas, a matter of pride. When an African dad buys his kid a present, the last thing he’s going to do is give some fat white man credit for it.
  40. incensed
    angered at something unjust or wrong
    He was incensed by the idea of my mom being in contact with her previous love, and she decided it was safer for everyone involved not to test his anger.
Created on Tue Jul 31 15:56:13 EDT 2018 (updated Tue Jul 31 15:57:30 EDT 2018)

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