My Many Selves: The Quest for a Plausible Harmony

by Wayne C. Booth

In his autobiography, My Many Selves, Wayne C. Booth is less concerned with his professional achievements---though the book by no means ignores his distinguished career---than with the personal vision that emerges from a long life lived thoughtfully. For Booth, even the autobiographical process becomes part of a quest to harmonize the diverse, often conflicting aspects of who he was. To see himself clearly and whole, he broke the self down, personified the fragments, uncovered their roots in his experience and background, and engaged those selves and experiences in dialogue. Basic to his story and to its lifelong concern with ethics and rhetoric was his Mormon youth in rural Utah. In adulthood he struggled with that background, abandoning most Mormon doctrines, but he retained the identity, ethical questions, and concern with communication that this upbringing gave him. The uncommon wisdom and careful attention that empower Wayne Booth's many other books cause My Many Selves to transcend its genre, as the best memoirs always do. The book becomes a window through which we who read it will see our own conflicts, our own ongoing struggle to live honestly and ethically in the world. Wayne Booth died in October 2005, soon after completing work on this autobiography.

336 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2006

Reviews

[Steve Maddux · Rating 4 out of 5]

Highly Plausible

I did my Ph.D. At the University of Chicago 1972-1979 and hence overlapped with Wayne Booth's years of teaching there, indeed one could say with his heyday, but never had a class with him and never met him. Nevertheless, two of his books have had a tremendous influence on me, The Rhetoric of Fiction, which I read while a graduate student, and Now Don't Try to Reason with Me, which I read slightly later. The present book is of a piece with them, in that it reflects his "rhetorological" approach to life and thought. It is a very sane, very practical, and very humane philosophy. This book is a good and worthy production in this vein. Why only four stars? Because, like many of the products of the Chicago School of (Literary) Criticism, while very balanced and full of insight, it can also be a bit plodding.

[Helen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book and found it delightful. Booth was a dear friend of my brother Richard, raised by good Mormon people but felt the Church was not for him by the time he was 15, but continued to do all the "Mormon" requirements of "good" Mormon boys with a mission and temple marriage. His struggle with wanting to continue with all the "good", causes the "many selves" to evolve with a hypocrite self, and many other selves. Each of which are quite delightful. Told with great humor and honesty. He clings to the sweetness and love of Mormonism and longs to have the great feelings he had growing up as a loved and "proper" boy.

He discusses how Utahns seem to set six as a number of children to have. He and his wife had one and he decided that was enough. His wife felt differently and so he says as much as he disliked having to do all the baby-stuff again, he says to his daughter, "I swear I wanted you the minute you were born." She was the last.

A great book for Mormons of Helen White descent---we manage to laugh at our selves and still love and testify.

It was sent me by a dear friend living in Colorado whose husband is a grandson of Mathias Cowley and was resentful of the Church making a scapegoat of his grandfather. My friend also was concerned when Booth died and the New York Times acknowledged his death but the Utah papers did not pick it up until she contacted me and I contacted my brother and he contacted Jerry Johnston of the Deseret News and lo and behold an editorial spoke of his many talents, teachings and writings.

[m · Rating 3 out of 5]

this is a nice autobiography from a wise University of Chicago English professor.