The Chinese version of Weismore is very anxious.

Another book, Wes Moore, is a biography of two black youths, with a rating of four and a half stars on Amazon. I like reading biographies of ordinary people, and the spoilers on the web page attract me more: two strange boys with the same name "grew up in similar neighborhoods and spent a difficult childhood without a father;" They hung out with similar people on similar street corners and had unpleasant experiences with the police. "After entering the ranks of adults, one of them became a well-known Rhodes scholar, and the other was sentenced to life imprisonment for participating in robbery and shooting the police. The author of this book is, of course, the former Wes Moore. The purpose of writing this book is "to show the fate of living in the most crumbling corner of this country-how it went astray because of a trip and how it got on the right track because of a temptation." "

This passage reminds me that when I was a child, my father showed me a map of China. The sources of the Yellow River and the Yangtze River are so close, but the estuaries are so far apart that the areas flowing through them are completely different. He said, this is like the fate of life. People who seem to be similar at the beginning of life sometimes take a wrong step, and then they will drift away and eventually embark on a completely different path. This metaphor has been in my mind for many years. Although its educational significance has long been weak, I no longer believe that there are so many life stories of "one step is wrong and one step is wrong" in modern society with many opportunities. I also suspect that the seeds that determine different destinies in the future have long been buried in my early life, but those stories and thoughts about how personal life trajectories originate, extend, turn and shape always attract my interest.

I borrowed this book from the library with the expectation of prying into the fate track, and read it all at once. The preface begins with the author's Rhodes Scholarship in 2000-this news was published in the Baltimore Sun, and another news report in the same period mentioned another robbery and shooting of Wes Moore. Perhaps just because of the coincidence of the same name, the author is obsessed with it. After graduating from Oxford University, he returned to Baltimore and began to correspond with another Wes Moore. He went to the prison to meet him and interview his relatives and friends (with himself). In these conversations, two life paths gradually became clear: "The shocking fact is that his story may become my story; The tragedy is that my story could have been his story. " The chilling fact is that his story could have been mine. The tragedy is that my story may be his. )

The text of this book is relatively simple (but not excellent), the narrative is smooth, and the author's ideas are well understood. Generally speaking, this is a very readable book. As far as hard goods are concerned, their stories are really remarkable. Based on my superficial understanding of American society, it should be said that the true story reflecting the growth and struggle of black youth, whether it is a failed Wes or a successful Wes, is quite typical. The poor black community in the city is isolated to a great extent, and it is also forgotten, ignored or avoided by many "normal people". Generations of young boys grew up in an environment full of crime, drugs, violence, dropping out of school and unmarried teenage mothers, and they involuntarily embarked on the wrong path of their parents and brothers. People who can escape from the established fate track are often the result of the joint action of many forces-one or several reliable and respectable relatives of the elders, the family's emphasis on education, the mentors they met during their growth, and accidental opportunities. It is beautiful to show the fate of these internal and external causes and external forces.

However, as a book with four and a half stars, I am somewhat disappointed. The main problem stems from the young author's inability to deeply understand and analyze the huge and complicated relationship between society, community, family and personal destiny, so that the whole book stays in a scratching state, perhaps finding the general position, perhaps touching the key points occasionally, but always unable to thoroughly, frankly and incisively penetrate the crux and hit the nail on the head. Of course, this does not mean that the author of a good book must nag about his views and reflect his analysis. In fact, sometimes a purely descriptive biography can better reflect the author's thinking ability: this ability can be reflected in various aspects such as choosing ink, choosing words and making sentences, creating atmosphere, etc., just like a sketch drawn by an author will leave blank space and make the finishing point. However, this skill is obviously not available to Wes Moore, the author of this book.

However, although disappointed, I don't think this reading experience is a waste of time. This is based on the author's plain and detailed description of many key events, which can make readers think for themselves about the question he raised but did not answer: Why on earth did these two young people embark on such different paths? Moreover, it is precisely because the author can't form his own strong point of view and impose the preset conclusion on others that readers can enjoy a broad space for thinking. This is not a beneficial reading experience.

The strongest feeling left by this book is that it once again deepens my belief that the early experiences of life, especially family education, play a crucial and decisive role in the trajectory of life. In fact, after closing the book, I thought about this question with great interest: If I put two five-year-old Wes Moore in front of me and let me predict which one will be more successful when I grow up, can I guess right? On the surface, their circumstances were quite similar at that time: their families were ordinary, and they were raised by their mothers and matriarchal relatives. Their fathers did not appear in their lives, and they lived in communities with concentrated ethnic minorities and complex components (Baltimore and Bronx, new york). There were many young people who were idle or made a living by drug trafficking on the street corner. But after careful analysis, we can find many differences: first, the author Wes Moore's parents are legal couples, and his father died of illness; Another Wes Moore's mother is a teenage mother, and the drunken father never wanted to have a place in his child's life. Secondly, the author Wes Moore's mother received a formal college education, while another Wes Moore's mother, although already the best in the family, only got a basic degree in a community college. As for grandparents, the difference is more obvious. The author is actually the second generation of Jamaican immigrants. His grandparents are tenacious, hardworking, full of dreams and adventurous spirit, and have received a good education. Another grandmother of Wes Moore has a similar experience to his mother. She is a member of the hopeless death cycle of generations in urban slums ... who can get a better family education? Isn't it obvious? In fact, the author was sent to the best school nearby by his mother at all costs, while other Wes traveled back and forth between schools in and out of Baltimore. It seems that it is not accidental to guess the adult trajectories of the two Wes based on this early experience, although it is suspected that it is wise after the event.