Review
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Title: Chosen Path: A Memoir
Author: D. Michael Quinn
Publisher: Signature Books
Genre: Memoir
Year Published: 2023
Number of Pages: 571
Format: Hardcover
ISBN: 9781560854517
Price: $39.95
Reviewed by Conor Hilton for the Association of Mormon Letters
Michael Quinn’s Chosen Path: A Memoiris an insightful and obscure, revealing and concealing book. The book is not structured, nor is it written, like a typical memoir. Quinn called it a ‘chronologically structured self-biography’. Quinn worked on various versions of his memoirs throughout his life and quotes from previously written efforts throughout this final published version, often expanding or commenting on what he had written decades prior from a more contemporary vantage point.
Signature Books has incorporated explanatory footnotes throughout the text, adding information about individuals who are mentioned, events, and unclear terminology. Perhaps most interestingly, they periodically have footnotes that offer a different sense of events than Quinn had—drawing on letters, papers, and other documents in their collection. Almost always these differences relate to Quinn more negatively perceiving others’ thoughts and actions towards him than those people thought or the editors’ reading of documents supported. These moments in the text highlight one of my central takeaways about Quinn—that he was often riddled with self-doubt and struggled to accept the praise and love that others offered. Simultaneously, Quinn had a strong sense of ambition or ego—a combination that seemed to create an abundance of tension in his life.
As a queer Mormon disciple-scholar, I thought I had a good sense of who Quinn was and what his relationship to Mormonism and the institutional church felt like. I was wrong. Reading Quinn’s memoir repeatedly challenged my perception, particularly with Quinn’s robust spiritual life that is peppered throughout the memoir. He consults the Lord in prayer as he conducts research, pleads for the Spirit before giving academic and devotional talks, and seems to have a near-constant sense of spiritual confirmation of his actions. This gets at another thing that Quinn refers to repeatedly—that he’s not really a radical. While he certainly holds political and ideological positions that many would call ‘radical’, he has, in many ways, a non-radical engagement with the institutional church (at least, in his perception, which was clearly not aligned with that of some in the church hierarchy, particularly, in Quinn’s telling, Boyd K. Packer).
Reading Chosen Path is a fascinating experience because it simultaneously is deeply revealing about Quinn—highlighting so many anecdotes and experiences that he found worth recording, with various amounts of self-reflection—and quite concealing—not in terms of actively withholding information from the reader, but in that I left the book more intrigued by the enigma of Quinn. This is ultimately a strength of the book; in that it replicates for the reader Quinn’s own struggle to unify various parts of his identity (most notably his homosexuality and his Mormonism). The book doesn’t offer neat answers about Quinn, instead offering an abundance of information to the reader, with some interpretations, but largely leaving them on their own to make sense of Quinn as a person.
This is certainly related to the memoir’s structure, which also results in the book being packed with fascinating anecdotes and tidbits. The memoir is a rich source for learning about Quinn, but also for accessing a lay member account of the church in the 40s-60s (particularly in California). Those interested in homosexuality in California in the 40s-60s will also find the early chapters valuable (particularly in the context of its somewhat casual and pervasive presence in the periphery of Quinn’s life). The sections about his mission were quite fascinating—what I knew as ‘preparation days’ being called ‘diversion days’, which ran ALL day, not just until dinnertime, and included a movie or two followed by a theatrical production in the evening (what a different world!). And those interested, like Quinn himself, in the Mormon hierarchy and their own internal debates and tensions will find chapters 11-18 particularly worthwhile.
Chosen Path: A Memoir is an inspiring story of the pursuit of truth and self-discovery. It is also a devastating account of the pain caused by self-denial and the loneliness of self-doubt. Chosen Path: A Memoir is a tragedy and a triumph. In other words, D. Michael Quinn’s life was like all our lives, filled with sorrow and joy. I hope we can continue Quinn’s pursuit of truth and devotion, making Mormonism a place where he would feel welcome and embraced. And I hope that Quinn’s spirit can feel the admiration, love, and affection that I and so many others have for him, perhaps bringing him some peace.