The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates

4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars | 7,184 ratings

Price: 11.81

Last update: 08-23-2024


Top reviews from the United States

IrisRose
5.0 out of 5 stars Heartbreaking and so real
Reviewed in the United States on September 9, 2013
Although Mr. Moore's two stories reveal nothing new in our general knowledge of the heartbreaking results of poverty, they still lucidly bring us into the disparity of opportunities in the black community. Yes, I do believe that each person is responsible for his own actions and it is possible to 'pull oneself up with determination.' However, there has to be some encouragement somewhere along the line. There also has to be something to spark that determination. Mr. Moore's family was educated and intelligent. His mother was determined that he not go down that bleak road, and went to extreme measures to ensure that. For the other Wes Moore, there was nothing, no father, an addict mother who loved her sons, but had no idea HOW to love them, and mentorship that took him to the wrong places. If there is not family, there is sometimes a teacher or minister as a mentor or an inspiration. The other Wes had neither of these. He had only the glittering motivation of money made from drug dealing. With absolutely nothing else satisfying in his life, he could not see any other way to go. Blame him, if you will, but I really can't.
His life is contrasted to Mr. Moore's not by poverty: both were impoverished. Not by neighborhood: both lived in tough neighborhoods. Not by street influece. I will go so far as to say not entirely by education: many young impoverished children have grown up to be healthy hard-working adults without advanced education. But yes, education to a certain point. The other Wes could not find a reason to continue in school. Blame him for that or not; his circumstances overcame any light he might find in the educational system.
They were contrasted by the support of family. I will also say that family is not always able to make a difference. Family must work very hard and actively to keep children away from the dangers of the street. The other Wes's mother had no desire or even knowledge of how to do that. Mr. Moore's family did, from the beginning.

Wes Moore's writing style is not an inspired literary work. Don't expect that. But he tells his story with straightforward honesty and sincerity of feeling. He is sympathetic for the other Wes Moore without excusing him, using pathos, or becoming maudlin. I feel that his style and tone are objective and clear. This directness in his writing makes the stories of the two men stand on their own merit, thus making them stronger.

I do not see judgment of the other Wes Moore in this story, nor do I see anything self-congratulatory in Mr. Moore's own story. It is a valuable book that brings the depressing reality of hopelessness or near hopelessness of a life in poverty. I would like to see this book on all school library shelves, in classrooms, and encouraged reading by teachers who care at all about their kids. One spark, one little spark can make the difference. I know.
Alison Urban
5.0 out of 5 stars Thought provoking and heartbreaking story of two lives that could not have ended more differently.
Reviewed in the United States on September 26, 2017
The Other Wes Moore is the first book for a school reading project I have read that has moved me so much that even after I was done reading it I didn't want to stop reading. I read past the initial story to the after word and even the entirety of the acknowledgements. I have never done that with a book before, period. This is a book about two boys with the same name of Wes Moore. The story goes through the very similar lives of both of these men from their childhood to adulthood. You see all of the twists and turns in their lives that lead them to their fates, with one being a Rhodes Scholar and decorated Veteran, and the other in prison with a life sentence. You get to read the lifetimes of these men and try and figure out for yourself the big question of the entire book, "What made the difference?"
What made the difference that led to our author being successful and the other Wes Moore serving a life sentence? You read the accounts of both men's lives as they struggle to survive in the Bronx from failing out of school, drug dealing, problems with the law, and young pregnancies. This book brings a complexity to the inner workings of the minds of two boys growing up in environments where everything is against them and they're expected to become delinquents, and then criminals, because it's the norm. You see their rises and falls as they go on paths where they begin to fix their lives but then just wind up falling right back to where they were. You feel the character's struggle as one falls further and further from grace and the other begins to get their life back on track. You know the outcome of the story and yet you keep hoping and praying that things will end differently, that everything will work out for both parties. It makes you forget that you already know the ending to the story.

At the end of the book you're left with many questions and thoughts, but overall the message that your situation doesn't define you, that anyone can change their future no matter how hopeless the present seems. This book leaves you with the thought that anyone can turn their life around, while at the same time wondering why the other Wes Moore could not see the same. It's a powerful story of two boys becoming men in different ways and experiencing identical struggles of identity and trying to fight society's expectations of them while at the same time falling into them at one point or another.

I would recommend this book to many if you want a powerful and thought provoking read that will captivate you and make you think about your path in life a little deeper like it did for me.

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