The Other Wes Moore: Book Review

Wes Moore, a scholar about to attend Oxford University, came across an interesting article while reading the newspaper one day. The article was about another Wes Moore who had recently been sent to prison for life. Wes Moore the scholar decided to send the other man a letter which began the beginning of many encounters between the two. After learning more about each other, the two Wes Moores realized that had a lot more in common than just their names. The Other Wes Moore is an autobiography and biography about these two men and the similarities between them. Although the book is classified under those genres, the book is not a typical version of either genre. Unlike most biographies that summarize main events in a person’s life, the author of the book describes stories from both of the men’s lives to give insight into their
It is also structured in a way that shows where these experiences differed and how those differences affected them differently. The book is broken up into three parts: Fathers and Angles, Choices and Second Chances, and Paths Taken and Expectations Fulfilled. Each part focuses on a different time in the men’s lives. The first part, Fathers and Angles, focuses on their childhood and the challenges that they had to overcome. Both men had similar childhoods, yet they were taught how to process them differently. As Wes said, “I was taught to remember, but never question. Wes was taught to forget, and never ask why” (4). The second part, Choices and Second Chances, is about a time period after childhood, but before either of them really became a man. They were too young to realize the outcome of some mistakes, but too old to go without punishment for them. Finally, the book focuses on where the two men ended up. This happens in the third part,, Paths Taken and Expectations