The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates

by Wes Moore
Hennepin County Library audiobook 5 discs
read by the author
genre: non-fiction, memoir, social commentary

"Two kids with the same name were born blocks apart in the same decaying city within a year of each other. One grew up to be a Rhodes Scholar, decorated combat veteran, White House Fellow, and business leader. The other is serving a life sentence in prison."

I had read a review of this book a few years ago, then saw it on the shelf at the library. What a fascinating story of similarities and differences. The tag line of "The chilling truth is that his story could have been mine, The tragedy is that my story could have been his." Moore says that he doesn't really know why their lives turned out so differently. He talks about choices and the mentors he had. I think one key difference is that the author had a loving, attentive father who happened to die when the author was quite young. The other Wes Moore had no father at all.

I love this quote from the book: "Boredom in teenage boys is a powerful motivation to create chaos." How true! There were other parts in the epilogue I would like to note, but time is short and I need to get going.

Oh! I like what he had to say about privilege and chances and the role of luck. Even though I know I've had a lot of privileges (due to my skin color, neighborhood, parents, etc.), I can't really know what it's like to feel that I could never succeed. As a teacher, I get frustrated with kids who seem (to me) to squander their opportunities. I forget sometimes that I was raised in such a way that success was expected. This book is a worthwhile read.

I also liked how the author identified poverty as he knew it growing up in Baltimore and the Bronx versus the poverty he saw in South Africa when he studied abroad.