This year, the First Year Reading Experience Committee, under the umbrella of the Office of First Year Experience and Family Programs, chose the narrative The Other Wes Moore by Wes Moore. This riveting tale introduces the history of two young men bearing the same name and similar background, but ultimately lead completely different lives: one a Rhodes Scholar and familiar of traveling overseas within the walls of the White House, and the other living his life in prison under the charge of attempted murder.
The premise itself presents an intriguing tale that begs the question: how did it all go wrong? Moore keeps his audience hooked by weaving between his life story, as well as his counterpart’s, showing the positive and negative moments that follow anyone’s life.
Throughout it all, Moore readily reiterates the idea that everyone’s story, no matter how diverse they might be, is littered with choices to be made, and those choices can and will affect you for the rest of your life.
This book rings true to incoming freshmen with the idea that a new world is opening up before their eyes, and with this new world are new rules to follow, new temptations to cave into or reject and new people who can alter your lives in the best or worst ways.
When asked why this book stood out to the First Year Reading Experience Committee, member Bharani Sankar (‘16) remarked that The Other Wes Moore, “gives students an insight on how opportunities and decisions play an important role in a person’s life.”
While the author Wes Moore was able to overcome his troubling background and persevere beyond the expectations set up from the people in his neighborhood, the criminal Wes Moore, despite his best intentions, fell victim to the seedier part of his surroundings.
Sankar also said of students relating to Moore’s tale that this book stresses “making the most of your opportunities, and college is where you really start making decisions for yourself and by yourself that will shape your decisions.”
Despite addressing topical issues, such as drug addiction and dealing, gang violence, police abuse, teen pregnancies and racial discrimination, there is no need to fear being swallowed by number and figures. Moore toes the fine line of lecturing against these evils and allowing the true story to be told so that the harsh point can be made.
While there is a definitive split between the author and the convict, being able to see both halves of their story – the failure and triumph, the struggle to act like a man and be true to their convictions but know when to accept defeat – makes both men pitiable and admirable in their own ways. This is not a cautionary tale of good versus evil; this is simply a history of two men who to some might have been interchangeable in their youth, but who eventually made names for themselves in singular – and unlike – events.
All of this wrapped in a short read, The Other Wes Moore is an exemplary book chosen as this year’s First Year Reading Experience for the class of 2018. This book will be discussed in the Longwood Seminar classes, and will be featured during New Lancer Days with a panel featuring the author himself!
Don’t hesitate to finish this fascinating and rewarding book!
