The Other Wes Moore by Wes Moore

I like the idea of this book - an investment banker with an "American dream" resume finds that someone has the same name as him, but is in prison for armed robbery.  He finds him and tells both of their stories.

Both Wes Moore and Wes Moore grow up in inner cities - one in Baltimore, the other begins his life in Baltimore but is raised in the Bronx.  Both are raised by single mothers, and as the book progresses, Moore does a fine job of reporting on what each of them was doing during different phases of childhood and adolesence.  One ends up mixed up in drugs, jail, and fathering several children as a teenager, while the other becomes a Rhodes Scholar after graduating from college. 

The book is not judgemental - if anything it is a little ascetic for such a personal story.  Moore makes the point in the foreword that he doesn't want to lessen the other Moore's crimes, but wants to dissect how they could start out with such similar odds and yet end up in such different places.  He punctuates that at the end with a multi-page resource guide for organziations that help children growing up in all sorts of situations.

I found this sentiment lofty, and admirable, but a strange end to the book.  I guess it's his way of not drawing any conclusions other than "we need to engage kids to get them on the right path," but I think there are some more conclusive distinctions to be drawn between the two Wes' upbringings and outcomes.  My other beef with this book is that it may have been too long.  It was not long from a page-count perspective, but I did feel like it may have been similarly effective as a piece of long-form journalism.